Ohm Depot

Snap Circuits

In this unit, The Ohm Depot, I was tasked with creating different snap circuit projects to grasp the differences/advantages or series parallel circuits, learn how to calculate resistance with Ohm's law, and to review multimeter use. Starting off with a gizmo, we learned about the difference in power values between appliances in a household. In this process, we not only recorded the value of lumens (lm) and wattage (w) per lamp, but also calculated the overall price of the electrical bill. Next, we moved onto snap circuits. Snap circuits are an educational tool consisting of different components, and it is used to teach basic engineering, electronics, and circuitry concepts. Each component has a groove on the bottom which is used to mount on top of the base plastic piece. I built a total of seven circuits and used a multimeter to measure the voltage/current of each piece - I followed up by calculating the resistance and power. Below contains my documentation for this project, involving a description and an answer to the slideshow question.

Lamp in Series (left) and Lamp in Parallel (right): In a series circuit, the lamps become progressively dimmer because the batteries' distribution of power isn't equal. In parallel, the voltage is distributed evenly, so the lights will have equal brightness.

Sharing Energy, fan with blades (left) and fan without blades (right): This circuit contains one battery pack, one S1 slide switch, three wires, one lamp socket labeled L1, and one M1 motor. The circuit with the fan blades causes the motor to slow down, which in turn allows more power to supply to the lamp (making it brighter). The circuit without the fan blades is faster because there isn't drag between the motor and the blades; thus, it uses more energy and distributes less to the lamp.

Circuit A contains one M1 motor, one S1 slide switch, five wires, and one battery pack. Circuit B (right) contains one S2 press switch, one S1 slide switch, one battery pack, eight wires, one 2.5V lamp socket, and one M1 motor. In circuit B, when a lamp is added, the speed of the motor and fan blades reduces because power is being supplied to more components. If the button is pressed, more power is supplied to the lamp and less to the motor, thus causing the lamp to light up and the motor of slow down. On the contrary, because circuit A has no lamp (or extra components), the speed of the fan is constant, and notably faster than that of circuit B's.

Problems Encountered and Solutions

• One primary issue I encountered related to the readings on the multimeter: while I measured the snap circuits' voltage and current, I found that the readings were often inaccurate and fluctuated randomly. To solve this problem, I used different multimeters, as well as compared my values with my peers.