Wheatstone Bridge

A detailed Summary of Wheatstone Bridge


The most accurate measurements of resistance are made with a galvanometer (or a voltmeter) in a circuit called a Wheatstone bridge, named after the British physicist Charles Wheatstone. This circuit consists of three known resistances and an unknown resistance connected in a diamond pattern. A DC voltage is connected across two opposite points of the diamond, and a galvanometer is bridged across the other two points. When all four of the resistances bear a fixed relationship to each other, the currents flowing through the two arms of the circuit will be equal, and no current will flow through the galvanometer.

By varying the value of one of the known resistances, the bridge can be made to balance for any value of unknown resistance, which can then be calculated from the values of the other resistors. In theory, if one arm of an originally balanced equal-arm Wheatstone Bridge is changed from R to R + ∆R, the bridge voltage will be given by:

V0 = (Vs/4) x (∆R/R) = (Vs/4R) x ∆R

Therefore, when plotting the graph V0 against ∆R, the values ∆R around less than about 10SŁ we would expect a linea


Using the graph to determine the unknown resistance: Rx = 6.7SŁ

∆R



Some common words found in the essay are:
Charles Wheatstone, Wheatstone Bridge, Bridge INTRODUCTION, wheatstone bridge, unknown resistance,

Approximate Word count = 1209
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science

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