Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An early D'Arsonval galvanometer showing magnet and rotating coil. A galvanometer is an electromechanical measuring instrument for electric current.Early galvanometers were uncalibrated, but improved versions, called ammeters, were calibrated and could measure the flow of current more precisely.
A moving coil galvanometer can be used as a voltmeter by inserting a resistor in series with the instrument. The galvanometer has a coil of fine wire suspended in a strong magnetic field. When an electric current is applied, the interaction of the magnetic field of the coil and of the stationary magnet creates a torque, tending to make the coil ...
The galvanometer does not need to be calibrated, as its only function is to read zero or not zero. When measuring an unknown voltage and the galvanometer reads zero, no current is drawn from the unknown voltage and so the reading is independent of the source's internal resistance, as if by a voltmeter of infinite resistance.
The first moving-pointer current-detecting device was the galvanometer in 1820. These were used to measure resistance and voltage by using a Wheatstone bridge, and comparing the unknown quantity to a reference voltage or resistance. While useful in the lab, the devices were very slow and impractical in the field.
High-precision laboratory measurements of electrical quantities are used in experiments to determine fundamental physical properties such as the charge of the electron or the speed of light, and in the definition of the units for electrical measurements, with precision in some cases on the order of a few parts per million. Less precise ...
Voltmeter: Measures the potential difference between two points in a circuit. (Includes: DVM and VTVM) VU meter: Measures the level of AF signals in Volume units Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO) Check transistor
Resistance thermometer principle: relation between temperature and electrical resistance of metals (platinum) (electrical resistance), range: 10 to 1,000 kelvins, application in physics and industry; Solid thermometer principle: relation between temperature and length of a solid (coefficient of thermal expansion). Bimetallic strip
A modern electrometer is a highly sensitive electronic voltmeter whose input impedance is so high that the current flowing into it can be considered, for most practical purposes, to be zero. The actual value of input resistance for modern electronic electrometers is around 10 14 Ω, compared to around 10 10 Ω for nanovoltmeters. [ 9 ]