10 - Maximum Power Transfer and Non-Ideal Power Sources

INTRO: Today we explored the idea of Maximum Power Transfer and Non-ideal Power Sources. Maximum power transfer occurs when the resistances inside the EMF is 0, or close to it. That is what we would call an Ideal power source. If it were non-deal, then there would be a value for an internal EMF's resistance.

LAB: Maximum Power Transfer
In this lab we will be working with the concept we just learned to attempt to maximize the power delivered to a load resistor.

Above we measured Pmax. In order to do this, we had to make some assumptions, such as Rc being larger then Rs.


Here is a picture of our circuit diagram. We connected according to the diagram provided in the lab manual.

Here we have some calculations of the circuit in regards to power

LAB: Non-Ideal Power Sources

In this lab we will explore non-deal power sources. This is a topic that has not been covered yet, because power sources are treated as being ideal out of simplicity. The aim of this lab is to illustrate some of the effects of non-ideal power supplies.

Here we made some calculations with and without the resistance of the source. Like i mentioned above, the resistance of the source is what differentiates between a ideal and non-ideal source.



At #2 above we have a comparison between different external resistances and the internal resistance of the EMF. As you can see, the internal resistance goes down as the external resistance goes up. This goes in line with what we have begun learning.