Day 7: Super Positition

Lab 7: Super Position II

In this lab, my team and I analyzed a circuit with multiple voltage sources and utilized the Super Position method. This method essentially simplifies the circuit by drawing focus to one source and its effects on the system. By analyzing each of them individually, we can come to a complete conclusion by adding the separate results find.

Prelab

To put this into practice, we first were given a circuit to analyze on paper (whiteboard). The goal for this analysis was to find the value of V over the "6.8K" resistor.

The circled values are the actual values of the resistors that we were given. This will play into our results later.

Using the ideal values, however, we carried out our analysis of the circuit using superposition techniques. The diagram drawn on the whiteboard is the "3V" version where the 5V supply has been shorted out (replaced by a wire with no resistance). Analyzing the "5V" version and adding it gave us our answer.

From our findings, we had gotten that the voltage over the resistor was theoretically going to be 2.703V

Live Trial

After obtaining the necessary materials, my team and I put together a working circuit based on the design in the prelab. For future experimental calculation, we measured the actual resistances of each element (shown in prelab).

We then connected only one voltage source and measured the value of V from its version of the circuit.

An actual value of V(3V) = .695V is attained!

Now the same procedure is practiced with the 5V supply!

V(5V) = 1.99V actual!

Now for the final procedure...BOTH SUPPLIES!

As suspected, the value is pretty darn close!

V = 2.69V

Making a table of these values, we can see just how close we were to ideal!

All values are within 2%, which my team and I agreed was within the acceptable range for results.

Summary

To sum up, the principle of Superposition is one that takes focus on a singular source and analyzes the effect it causes on the circuit. From the live trial, we can see that the calculated results line up quite closely to the experimental results. Professor Mason made an astute remark by saying that superposition is a lot of easy work, as compared to other methods, that are a little bit of hard work. It is definitely a method I will consider, come exam time.