Electronic – Measuring/confirming voltage and current

currentvoltage

new to the site and to electronics.

I just started learning about ohm's law and Kirchhoff's voltage law and trying to confirm values I am reading.

I have a simple circuit with a 9 V battery, 100 ohm resistor and red LED, the datasheet tells me forward voltage is 2.2 to 2.4. Checking with a multimeter the battery is 9.2 V and the resistor is 99.6 ohm.

First issue is voltage, when I measure the LED it has 2.33 V and the resistor has 5.8 V, this is 8.13 V not 9.2?

Then for current I believe we first get voltage (9.2 – 2.33 = 6.87) then 6.87/99.6 = 68.96 mA but when I measure I get 56.8 mA?

I don't understand why the numbers don't add up, can anyone help explain please?

Best Answer

When you add your resistor and LED to a feeble 9 volt supply/battery, it's likely that the terminal voltage drops so, measure the voltage across the supply when you have your circuit (resistor and LED) connected.

So, you should probably trust the implied 8.13 volts under load. But, you have to remember that the multimeter measuring amps might add a few ohms of series resistance too.

So, with 5.8 volts across the resistor you should have a current of 58.23 mA but, when you insert the meter this is slightly less at 56.8 mA. The 56.8 mA would imply a resistance of more like 102.1 Ω. So, your meter's current shunt resistor is about 2.5 Ω.