Working with electronics

In a nutshell

There are many electronic devices that are used nowadays in experiments, so it is important to know how to use them.

Measuring potential difference and current

Potential difference is the difference in energy between two points in a circuit. The current is how fast electrons travel across the whole circuit.

Voltmeters

Potential difference can be measured using a voltmeter. Voltmeters are connected in parallel across the equipment you want to measure.

Biology; Practical skills; KS4 Year 10; Working with electronics

There are two sockets and wires in the voltmeter, commonly red (positive) and black (negative), which are connected to the voltmeter to give a reading.

Ammeters

Current can be measured by using an ammeter, in a similar way to the voltmeter, which involves the red and black wires being connected in series.

Biology; Practical skills; KS4 Year 10; Working with electronics

Multimeters

Multimeters can measure current, potential difference and resistance. They have different ports for you to plug the cables into to calculate each different variable.

Biology; Practical skills; KS4 Year 10; Working with electronics

Light gates

Light gates are a piece of equipment that measures time, speed and acceleration, by measuring the time between interruptions to the light beam.

Below is an image of a light gate.

Biology; Practical skills; KS4 Year 10; Working with electronics

Light gates are connected to computers and the length of the object can be input to calculate speed.

In order to find the acceleration, an object that interrupts the light beam twice is needed, so the duration of each interruption can be used to calculate acceleration. Alternatively, two light gates could be used.

Light gates can also be used as a stopwatch.