Light Bulb Experiment - Positive and Negative Terminals

This topic is in relation to the post about previous topic entitled 'Positive and Negative Terminals'. On this post, you will get to learn a simple experiment about lighting a bulb.

Before we proceed on this experiment, you need to prepare the following items:

2 Pieces of Plastic-Coated Wires

The length of these two wires must be at least 20 cm long with bare ends.

Screwdriver

Use a screwdriver in tightening the two screws on the bulb holder. This is to ensure that the wire connected into them are tightly gripped.

4.5 Volts Battery

You can use other voltage rating of a certain battery as long as it is capable of making the bulb light. However, never use a battery with a voltage rating that exceeds the required rating of the bulb. If you do then the bulb will get damaged or worst, it will ignite or explode.

4.5 Volt Bulb with a Place Holder

Take note: The voltage rating of the bulb that you are going to use must be equal to the voltage rating of the battery that you will be using.

Lighting a Bulb Experiment

This simple experiment will show you how an electric current flows around the battery, wires and bulb.

The first experiment is to perform the three wrong setups which are the following:

1. Connecting a single wire

Using a single wire to connect on either one of the two battery terminals into the bulb will not going to work.

2. Connecting the two wires into the positive terminal of the battery

Assuming that the wires has been properly connected into the bulb's holder, but the other two ends are both connected into the positive terminal of the battery - the bulb will not going to light up.

3. Connecting the two wires into the negative terminal of the battery

The same setup as the above but the only difference is that the two wires are both connected into the negative terminal of the battery. As a result, the bulb will never going to light up.

The Correct Setup

Provided that the two wires are properly connected into the bulb's holder, the other two ends of the wires must be connected separately at the battery's terminal. 

One of the wires should be connected into the positive terminal while the other wire is to be connected into the negative terminal of the battery. Upon setting all up correctly, the bulb should light up.