Day 2: Basic circuits, circuit theory, and multimeters

Fig 2.1

Fig 2.2

1.  Basic functional circuit construction with the breadboard was conducted. This is the circuit consisting of a power source, LED, and a resistor. Here we had to analyze Ohm's law in understanding the relationship between voltage, resistance, and current. This relationship was used to determine the resistance needed to maximize the brightness of an LED given the specification of 30mA of max current for the LED.  Lastly, a potentiometer is used as a variable resistor to adjust the brightness of the LED.

Fig 2.3

2. The operation and uses of a  multimeter was explored. First it was used to test for continuity between two points on a circuit. This is done by measuring the resistance between two points. Low resistance indicates continuity, while an extremely high resistance means little to no continuity.
Second, it was used to test the voltage of an AC adapter and an AC/DC adapter. Here, the multimeters show that there is a very low tolerance on the rating of these adapters, and resistors in the circuits must be used to tune the output to the desired amount.