Why Does the Internal Resistance Graph Have a Negative Gradient?

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
2 replies · 8K views
Vaseline
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
When taking internal resistance into account, voltage/current graph has negative gradient (i.e. internal resistance).?

My thoughts...

Because for ohmic resistors, graph has a positive gradient. Why does one say that when V=0, Current = max, whilst the other says that when V=0, Current = 0?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Vaseline said:
When taking internal resistance into account, voltage/current graph has negative gradient (i.e. internal resistance).?

My thoughts...

Because for ohmic resistors, graph has a positive gradient. Why does one say that when V=0, Current = max, whilst the other says that when V=0, Current = 0?

My question was answered in that thread, this is the result I got.

[itex]E = I(R+r)[/itex] where R is the total resistance in the circuit and r is the internal resistance of the cell or battery. From this we can see that,

[itex]E = V + Ir[/itex]

and,

[itex]V = E - Ir[/itex]

When plotting a graph of potential different against current it is clear that the current I has a negative co-efficient: -r. Hence -r is the gradient of the line, and E is the y intercept. y=mx +c (remember?) this is just V=-rI+E.