All AP Physics 2 Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #91 : Circuits
A single battery is in series with several Ohmic resistors. How will the power output of the circuit change if a second battery is added in series?
Doubled
Quadrupled
Tripled
Halved
Quartered
Quadrupled
The power dissipated by the resistor will be
Using Ohm's Law:
And changing the equation to be exclusively in terms of voltage and resistance:
From this, it can be seen that doubling the voltage will quadruple the power.
Example Question #92 : Circuit Properties
A single battery is in series with a resistor. How would the output of the circuit change if a second was added in series?
Halved
Quadrupled
Quartered
Doubled
Tripled
Halved
The power dissipated by the resistor is
Using Ohm's Law
And changing the equation to be exclusively in terms of voltage and resistance
From this, it can be seen that doubling the resistance will halve the power dissipated if the voltage is kept constant.
Example Question #21 : Circuit Power
Consider the three circuits shown. In each circuit, the voltage source is the same, and all resistors have the same value. If each resistor represents a light bulb, which of the three circuits will produce the brightest light?
Circuit B
Circuits A, B, and C will all produce brightness of the same intensity
Circuit A
Circuit C
Circuits A and B will produce the same (highest) brightness, with circuit C producing the lowest brightness
Circuit A
To answer this question, we first need to determine what we're looking for that will allow any given light bulb to produce bright light. The answer is power. The more energy that is delivered to the light bulb within a given amount of time, the brighter the light will be. Let's go ahead and look at the equation for power in a circuit.
And since we're told in the question stem that the voltage source is identical in each circuit, we're looking for the circuit that has the largest current.
In order to find which circuit has the largest current, we'll need to invoke Ohm's law.
What this shows is that a higher current will occur in the circuit that has the lowest total resistance. Thus, we'll need to determine what the total resistance is in each of the three circuits.
In circuit A, we can see that there is only a single resistor. Thus, we can give this circuit's total resistance a value of .
In circuit B, we have two resistors that are connected in series. Remember that when resistors are connected in this way, the overall resistance of the circuit increases. We find the total resistance by summing all the resistors connected in series.
Therefore, we can give circuit B a total resistance of .
Now, let's look at circuit C. We can see that there are two resistors connected in parallel, and each of these are connected in series with a third resistor. To solve for the total resistance of this circuit, we first need to determine the equivalent resistance of the two resistors connected in parallel. Once we find that value, then we can take into account the third resistor connected in series.
To solve for the resistance of the two resistors connected in parallel, we have to remember that they add inversely.
Now that we've found the equivalent resistance for the two resistors connected in parallel, we can consider the third resistor connected in series.
Thus, we can give circuit C a value of .
Now that we've found the total resistance for each circuit, we can obtain our answer. Since circuit A has the lowest total resistance, it will also have the greatest current. Consequently, it will also have the greatest power delivered to its resistor (the light bulb), thus causing the light coming from that bulb to be the brightest.
Example Question #23 : Circuit Power
A battery is placed in series with five resistors. Find the total power dissipated by the circuit.
In series, resistance adds conventionally.
Using Ohm's law:
Using definition of electric power:
Plugging in values:
Example Question #23 : Circuit Power
A single resistor is added in series to a circuit with a battery. Determine the power dissipated by the resistor.
Use Ohm's law:
Converting to
Using definition of electric power:
Plugging in values:
Example Question #21 : Circuit Power
A lone resistor is placed in series with a battery. How will adding a second resistor in series affect the power output of the circuit?
Cut it in half
Double it
None of these
It will be unaffected
Quadruple it
Cut it in half
Definition of electrical power:
Ohm's law:
Combining equations:
When adding resistors in series, they add directly
Thus, in this case, resistance would increase, and if the voltage is kept constant, the power dissipated by the circuit would decrease. Doubling the resistance would cut the power output in half.
Example Question #21 : Circuit Power
A lone resistor is placed in series with a battery. How will adding a second resistor in parallel affect the power output of the circuit?
None of these
Double it
Cut it in half
Quadruple it
It would stay the same
Double it
Definition of electrical power:
Ohm's law:
Combining equations:
When adding resistors in parallel, they add inversely
Thus, in this case, resistance would decrease, and if the voltage is kept constant, the power dissipated by the circuit would increase. Adding identical resistors in parallel would halve the resistance, which would double the power dissipated.
Example Question #101 : Circuits
You have 4 resistors and an ammeter arranged as shown in the diagram below.
An ammeter measures current. The ammeter in this setup reads 0A. What is the resistance of ?
This setup is called a Wheatstone bridge. It's used to find the resistance of a resistor with an unknown value. When the ammeter reads 0, the two sides are at equipotential, so
.
Therefore, the resistance of R is .
Example Question #911 : Ap Physics 2
What is the resistance of a long copper wire with a diameter of ?
Write the following formula to find the resistance of the copper wire.
where is the resistivity in , is the length of the wire in , and is the cross sectional area of the wire in .
The resistivity of copper is: .
Substitute the givens to the resistance formula and solve.
Example Question #3 : Other Circuit Principles
Determine the total resistance of the given circuit.
In order to find the total resistance of the circuit, we need to combine all of the parallel resistors first, then add them together as resistors in series.
Combine with :
Combine with :
Combine with :
Then, add the combined resistors, which are now all in series: