SCIENTIFIC LAB REPORTCHRISTMAS BAUBLESBY MALI, MELINA AND MALIA

AIM

To be able to light up as many lights as possible using one battery box and multiple wires connecting to five light bulbs.

HYPOTHESIS/PREDICTION

How many continuous lights will stay on using one battery box with connecting wires, while each light connects to each other?

•We think that the further away the light bulb is from the battery box, the dimmer the light will get

•The first one may also be the dimmest because the other four light bulbs will be using its energy

MATERIALS METHOD

•Battery box

•6 wires

•5 miniature light bulbs

•Alligator clips

•Power point

1. Connect battery box to the power point. DO NOT turn on.

2. Attach one end of the first wire to the battery box and the other end to a light bulb.

3. Turn on battery box to test the first light bulb.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all five light bulbs are connected to each other.

5. Observe and record results.

OBSERVATIONS

Light Bulb 1

Light Bulb 2

Light Bulb 3

Light Bulb 4

Light Bulb 5

Bright yellowOrangey shadow

Bright yellow Slightly dimmer

Quite dim Almost orange

Orange/yellowDim

Extremely dimBarely on

What happened?We observed that each light bulb wasn’t glowing at its full brightness. We noticed that the light bulbs were either quite dim or a bit below bright. We believed that this was because each light bulb, was sharing the energy of each other.

DIAGRAMS

Atoms are made up of protons (positive charge),

electrons (negative charge) and neutrons.

Electrons bounce around from atom to atom in a conductor, which is what makes electricity.

DIAGRAMS CONTINUED

Electrons move through the wire and as they go through, the light bulbs

gradually get dimmer.

A circuit diagram of our science experiment

DISCUSSION

o Electricity is made up of atoms, and atoms are made up of three particles, protons, electrons and neutrons

o Electrons gather together at the end of a conductor and they repel each other, and bounce around from atom to atom, creating electricity

o Electrons move through the wire and as they go through, the light bulbs gradually get dimmer because there are less electrons than what we started with

DISCUSSION CONTINUED

o You could see in our experiment when each light bulb had a different brightness to the next

o Electrons move through the wire and as this happens some electrons stay inside the light bulb but others move on through the wire to the next light bulb

o As the power moves along the wire, the light bulbs get dimmer because there is less electrons to share

o Energy cannot be created or destroyed – it can only be changed

CONCLUSION

o Our hypothesis was partially confirmed

o We predicted that as we went along the wires, the light bulbs would be dimmer than the one before

o The lights did light up, but the reason that the lights were dim was because each of the light bulbs are sharing electricity

CONCLUSION CONTINUED

o We had created a type of electric circuit called a series circuit

o Our experiment showed that as a result of us putting less power into the light bulbs from the battery box, the light bulbs were dimmer

o Each of the light bulbs in our circuit was either brighter or dimmer than the one before

o To follow up in our experiment, we might use a different sized light bulb and also find out more about insulators

BIBLIOGRAPHY• http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/energy_electricity_f

orces/electric_current_voltage/revision/3/

• https://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/cub_/activities/cub_electricity/cub_electricity_lesson05_activity1.xml

• http://www.monkeysee.com/play/24231-what-is-electricity

• http://www.english-online.at/science/electricity/electricity.htm

• http://www.csiro.au/en/Education/DIY-science/Physics/Light-up-your-light-bulbs