KUMAR CLASSES PRIVATE LIMITED

PHYSICS - XIIth

Topic – Current Electricity

Maximum Marks: 40 Unit Test – III Time: 2 Hours

Instructions:
1. Please check that this question paper contains 5 pages.
2. Please check that this question paper contains 9 questions.
3. All questions are compulsory.
4. Indicate your answers correctly with question number.
5. Use of calculators is not permitted.

1. Define the following terms with proper expression (formula),

significance of each parameter or symbol used in the expression, SI
unit, example and figure if needed:
(i) Electric Current and Current Density.
(ii) Average Drift Speed and relaxation time of free electrons.
(iii) Electrical Resistance and Mobility.
(iv) Resistivity and Conductivity.
(v) EMF and Terminal Potential of a cell/battery. [1x5=5 Marks]

2. Answer the following:

(i) State Ohm’s law.
(ii) Draw an appropriate curve/plot showing the variation of the
potential difference with current for a current carrying conductor
obeying Ohm’s law.
(iii) Write the expression for Resistance from the slope of the plot.
(iv) Draw a labelled circuit diagram for the circuit used to verify the

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Ohm’s law for different values of the current.

(v) A wire of resistance R is cut into five equal parts and all five
parts are then connected in parallel. If R’ is the effective resistance
of this parallel combination then find R’/R. [1x5=5 Marks]

3. (i) State the limitations of Ohm’s law with examples.

(ii) List out the various factors affecting the resistance of the wire of
a given material and also tell how does the resistance of the wire
varies with those factors. [3+2=5 Marks]

4.(i) Explain the variation of the Resistance(R) or Resistivity(ρ) with

temperature T for a wire of:
(a) Copper.
(b) Nichrome.
(c) Silicon.
(ii) Three resistors 2Ω,4Ω and 5Ω are connected in parallel across a
battery of e.m.f. 20V and negligible internal resistance. Calculate:
(a) Total Resistance.
(b) Current through each resistor and the total current drawn from
the battery. [3x1+2x1=5 Marks]

5. A copper wire of some cross-sectional area carries a current of

few amperes through it. If each copper atom in the wire
contributes roughly one conduction electron and the density of
copper is 9 × 103 kg/m3 and its atomic mass is 63.5 u then answer
the following questions:
(a) How is the current established almost instantly within the circuit
as soon as the switch is turned on or the key is closed in spite of the
average drift speed of each free electron being very low of the
order of few millimetre per second?
(b) Why do the free electrons acquire a steady average drift speed
instead of getting accelerated by the force on them due to the
applied electric field across the copper wire?
(c) How can we still obtain large amount of current in a conductor

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in spite of the average drift speed of free electron being so low of

order of few millimetre per second and the charge on an electron
being so low of order of 10-19 C?
(d) Does it mean that all the ‘free’ electrons of the metal are
moving in the same direction when electrons drift in a metal from
lower to higher potential? If yes then why and if no then why?
(e) Are the paths of electrons straight lines between successive
collisions (with the positive ions of the metal) in the:
(i) absence of electric field? (ii) presence of electric field?
If yes then explain how and if no then explain how? [1x5=5 Marks]

6. A 1.2 m long copper wire of cross-sectional area 10–7 m2 carries a

current of 1.5 A through it. If each copper atom in the wire
contributes roughly one conduction electron and the density of
copper is 9 × 103 kg/m3 and its atomic mass is 63.5 u and Boltzmann
constant, kB= 1.38064852 × 10-23 m2 kg s-2 K-1 then calculate:
(a) number density of the conduction electrons.
(b) average drift speed of conduction electrons.
(c) the time taken by an electron to drift from one end of the wire
to the another.
(d) the ratio of the average drift speed of conduction electrons
obtained earlier in the second part of this question with the
random vibrational or thermal speed of the copper atoms at the
room temperature i.e. 300 K.
(e) the ratio of the average drift speed of the conduction electrons
obtained in second part of this question with the speed of the
propagation of the electric field through the conductor produced
due to the drifting of electrons through conductor. [1x5=5 Marks]

7. The resistance of the heating element made of nichrome of an

electric toaster at room temperature (27.0 °C) is found to be 75.3 Ω.
When the toaster is connected to a 230 V supply, the current in it
settles after a few seconds to a steady value of 2.68 A. If the
temperature coefficient of the resistance of nichrome heating
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element of the electric toaster is 1.70 × 10–4 °C–1 then calculate:

(a) the resistance of the heating element of the electric toaster at
the steady temperature.
(b) the steady temperature of the heating element of the electric
toaster.
(ii) Explain the principle, construction and working of a Wheatstone
bridge with a labelled and neat circuit diagram and explain how the
value of an unknown resistance can be determined using a meter
bridge? [1x2+3=5 Marks]

8. (i) Derive the equation to determine the unknown resistance ‘r’

of any cell of e.m.f. ‘ε’ connected across a potentiometer with a
neat and labelled circuit diagram when the null points are obtained
at the points N1 and N2 respectively such that AN1= l1 when initially
no current is drawn through the cell and AN2= l2 when later the key
is closed and some current is drawn through the cell via a
resistance box of resistance ‘R’ and A is one end of the standard 1
m long wire in the potentiometer circuit.
(ii) Derive the equation for the ratio of the e.m.f.(s) ‘ε1’ and ‘ε2’ of
the two cells with a neat and labelled circuit diagram when each of
them is connected individually across a potentiometer and the
balanced or the null point is obtained at the points N1 and N2
respectively such that AN1= l1 when the first cell of e.m.f. ‘ε1’ is
connected across the potentiometer and AN2= l2 when the second
cell of e.m.f. ‘ε2’ is connected across the potentiometer and A is one
end of the standard 1 m long wire in the potentiometer circuit.
(iii) In a potentiometer arrangement, a cell of e.m.f. 1.25 V gives a
balance point at 35.0 cm length of the wire. If the cell is replaced by
another cell and the balance point shifts to 63.0 cm, what is the
e.m.f. of the second cell? [2x2+1=5 Marks]

9. (i) Determine the current in each branch of the network shown in

figure:

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(ii) A network of resistors is connected to a 16 V battery with

internal resistance of 1Ω as shown in the figure:

(a) Compute the equivalent resistance of the network.

(b) Obtain the current in each resistor.
(c) Obtain the voltage drops VAB, VBC and VCD. [2+3=5 Marks]

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