In this lab we had to determine the maximum length that the cable (AWG #30) could be so that the 12 V battery could provide a voltage across the load that is greater than 11 V.
In order to determine the length we first combine the resistance of the two cables calling the resistance R
tot and treat it as a single resistor. We used a battery to provide a steady 12 V and a resistor box to act as the cable. A fixed resistor was used to represent the load. The theoretical value for the R
load is 1000 ohms. However our resistor measured around 980 ohms. We would slowly increment the resistance until we measured close to 11 V across the load. At 11 V we measured a current of 11.44 mA and a resistance of 84 ohms across the cable.
Based on the data we collected we determine the length of the cable to be 121.7 m.
AWG #30 resistance = 0.3451 ohms/ m
Rtot = 84 ohms
Rtot / AWG #30 = 243.4 m
243.4 m / 2 = length of cable = 121.7 m
