In a potentiometer experiment, if the known voltage is increased, what effect does it have on the balance point?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
In a potentiometer experiment, if the known voltage is increased, what effect does it have on the balance point?
Balance point moves towards the positive terminal
Balance point moves towards the negative terminal
Balance point remains unchanged
Balance point becomes unstable
Increasing the known voltage will cause the balance point to move towards the positive terminal, as a higher voltage requires a longer length of wire to achieve balance.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: In a potentiometer experiment, if the known voltage is increased, what effect does it have on the balance point?
Solution: Increasing the known voltage will cause the balance point to move towards the positive terminal, as a higher voltage requires a longer length of wire to achieve balance.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand that a potentiometer is used to measure voltage by balancing it against a known voltage.
Step 2: Recognize that the balance point is where the voltage across a certain length of wire equals the known voltage.
Step 3: When the known voltage is increased, it means we need more voltage to reach balance.
Step 4: Since the potentiometer wire has a uniform resistance, a higher voltage requires a longer length of wire to achieve the same voltage drop.
Step 5: Therefore, the balance point will move towards the positive terminal of the known voltage source, indicating that more wire length is needed.
