March 24th

Non-Ideal Power Sources
In this lab, we experienced the structure of a non-ideal voltage supply, and how it affects the circuit.

In the pre-lab, we calculated the power outputs for an ideal voltage supply at 1V connected to a 22 ohm resistor, and the power outputs for a non-ideal voltage supply at 1V connected to a 22ohm resistor.

We measured the power output of a non-ideal voltage supply with three different resistors. The internal resistance is not a constant number. This indicates that the voltage supply contain a more complicated circuit than an single resistor.

Maximum Power Transfer.

In this lab, we learned the maximum power delivered to a load is when the load resistance is equal to the Thevenin Resistance.

We connected the circuit as shown in the picture and calculated the theoretical maximum output is 2.84mV.

This is how the circuit is connected. We measured the power output of the second resistor.

After the measurement, we found that the true power output was also 2.84mV which agree with the theoretical maximum power output we calculated before.