This series of activities, from the Institute of Physics, help student to understand electrical resistance. What is resistance, how it can be measured, how it arises and what affects it? During the topic, resistance is related to current, voltage, type of material, temperature and light intensity. The electrical...

From the Institute of Physics, this learning episode looks at the resistance of a metal and a semiconductor, giving a microscopic explanation of how resistance can vary with temperature. There is also a brief look at superconductivity and its applications.

LDRs (light dependent resistors) are semiconductor devices. From the Institute of Physics, in this learning episode students investigate the resistance of an LDR at different light intensities. This can be used as a basis to explain how photons liberate free electrons...

In this learning episode, from the Institute of Physics, students see how and why the resistance of a wire depends on the wire’s dimensions. They learn the definition of resistivity and use it in calculations.

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Produced by the Institute of Physics, this learning episode helps students to investigate the effective resistance of circuits with components in series and parallel. The activities include demonstrations, worked examples and student investigations.

In these activities, from the Institute of Physics, the concept of electrical power is explored. Students find that the energy transferred by an electrical component depends on the potential difference, current and the time for which it operates.

Part of a suite of activities produced by the Institute of Physics, this resource helps students develop their competence in using equations relating power and energy, in an electrical context.

The activities in this...

From the Institute of Physics, this learning episode links Kirchhoff’s circuit laws to the conservation of charge and energy. Students can verify the laws experimentally and use them to solve simple circuit problems.

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Produced by the Institute of Physics, this student experiment introduces the use of a potential divider as a source of variable potential difference. Students also learn to use potential dividers to detect temperature or light levels.

Produced by the Institute of Physics, this learning episode can be used to revises the idea of electromotive force (emf), introduce internal resistance and the consequent energy losses.

The activities include:
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In this learning episode, from the Institute of Physics, students derive the equation relating electromotive force (emf), terminal potential difference, current and internal resistance. They then tackle questions about the internal resistance of a power supply.

Produced by the Institute of Physics, this learning episode helps students to distinguish alternating from direct currents before revising why alternating current (ac) is so important.

The range of activities include...

In this learning episode from the Institute of Physics, students are introduced to capacitors. Through practical investigations, students look at their charge and discharge process.

The activities include:
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This learning episode, from the Institute of Physics, helps students understand how capacitors charge and the concept of capacitance. Students investigate the relationship between charge and potential difference across a capacitor.

In this learning episode, from the Institute of Physics, students derive formulae for capacitors in series and parallel to reinforce their understanding of circuits involving capacitors.

The activities in this...