Tuesday 1 October 2019

Two terminal method for resistance

I had thought that an ohmmeter was an example of the two probe method for measuring resistance but it seems that a modern meter is probably actually a disguised 4 probe method. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohmmeter I know that on old meters, you had to zero it every time before you started. The old meters were really just recalibrated ammeters and worked on the principle that a bigger resistance produced a smaller current. It seems that these modern ohmmeters put a constant current through and measure the voltage. A problem with this method of measuring resistance is the resistance of the leads (as shown below) and the unknown problem of contact resistance.