If a potentiometer is used to compare two cells, what is the effect of increasing the length of the wire?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
If a potentiometer is used to compare two cells, what is the effect of increasing the length of the wire?
It increases the accuracy of the measurement
It decreases the accuracy of the measurement
It has no effect on the measurement
It makes the cells equal
Increasing the length of the wire increases the potential gradient, which can improve the accuracy of the measurement by allowing for finer adjustments.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: If a potentiometer is used to compare two cells, what is the effect of increasing the length of the wire?
Solution: Increasing the length of the wire increases the potential gradient, which can improve the accuracy of the measurement by allowing for finer adjustments.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand what a potentiometer is. It is a device used to measure voltage by comparing two different voltage sources (cells).
Step 2: Know that the wire in a potentiometer has a certain length and resistance, which affects how voltage is distributed along it.
Step 3: Realize that increasing the length of the wire means there is more wire for the voltage to spread out over.
Step 4: Understand that a longer wire increases the potential gradient, which is the change in voltage per unit length of the wire.
Step 5: A higher potential gradient means that small changes in position along the wire correspond to larger changes in voltage.
Step 6: This allows for finer adjustments when comparing the two cells, leading to more accurate measurements.
