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Physics, Resistance of a wire help?

You have been given two samples of wire: one nichrome, one aluminum. Describe a procedure you could use to determine which sample was nichrome and which was aluminum

Answer:

If the wires are the same diameter and the same length then the only difference is the resistivity or ?ρ? of each since: ??Resistance = ρ???L ? A = 4???L ? (π???d)? ??????where??L = wire length ??and???A = cross-sectional area of wire ??or use??d = wire diameter Since the ρ_nichrome is much higher than the ρ_aluminum and given the two wires are the same diameter and length then if you connect the two wires in series across a battery, and measure the voltage across each wire, the wire with the higher voltage will be the nichrome wire because the voltage across the nichrome wire is:?V? = i???(R?) and the voltage across the aluminum wire is: ?Va = i???(Ra)? and the current i is the same through both wires and R? Ra ... or if you can just measure the resistance of each wire, ... the nichrome wire will have a higher value.
first, knowing the resistance of each wire (i dont know it, you need to look it up) i would set up a circuit to put out [X] amt of current (the amt of the lowest resistance in the wires) and run the current thru the wires to a light bulb. if the bulb doesnt light, you now have figured out that this is the wire with the most resistance (again i dont know which has a higher one) for clarification- aluminum resistance = X nichrome resistance = y circuit with current EQUAL to resistance of the lowest wire (for example if X was lowest with 3 ohms, you would set the current to however many amps/volts are required to overcome that) and then connect it to a bulb. when its turned on, if the bulb doesnt light, you have determined that it isnt wire X but wire Y. even more simply, just list the wires by their resistance. if X=3 ohms, Y= 4 ohms, and the bulb doesnt light at 3, you have determined that its wire Y. im assuimng you would have the resistance of the wires? this is how i would do it, but if thats the right way? i dunno. but it is one way.

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