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Post date: Mar 02, 2015 6:21:18 PM
The idea of this section is to show how we can use computers to help with calculations and output graphs of the results. These source code blocks can be copied to python scripts or alternatively this whole ipython workbook can be downloaded to allow you to run these calculations at home.
The equations used are ones that are mostly you meet in GCSE and just shows how much physics and insight you can gain from using them. The results of these calculations are graphs, where we have one independent/changeable variable - the element resistance, Relement. To make these graphs I am using ipython which is a programming language I like for calculations (these are the In [x] boxes) - you can ignore this if you like and just focus on the graphs.
This problem follows on from the previous ideas and it's a good idea to read this gives us our physical understanding (see here and here) about what should the resistance be of a heating element?
The calculation
We are aiming to plot the power output of the element (y-axis) as we change the element resistance (x-axis). Following the previous discussions, we will consider modelling this circuit:
We first calculate the resistance of the wire, assuming some lengths and material.
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