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Question

How does the length of a wire affect its resistance?

3 years ago

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24 Replies

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T

Trudie Swift


24 Answers

James H Profile Picture
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Resistance is proportional to the length.

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Pari

The longer the length of wire, the greater the resistance. This is because there will be more collisions with the metal ions by the flowing electrons. This can be demonstrated in the equation resistance = resistivity x length / area. Resistance is directly proportional to length.

M
Maryam Ekpolomo

The resistance is directly proportional to the length of the wire, the longer the wire the greater the resistance.

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Well the longer the wire the more collisions the electrons will have with the atoms in the way from one end of the wire to the other. Therefore the resistance will increase as the length increases. Also there is a formula which relates resisitance to length - other factors being kept constant - and the relationship can be seen through this formula as well.

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Rohan Ali

The length of a wire is directly proportional to the wires resistance. This is because the current, which is a flow of electrons, will collide more frequently with the positive charged metal ions, as there will be a higher number of them in a larger cross sectional area

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You can think of a long wire as several resistors in series together. In a series circuit, to find the total resistance you add the resistance of each resistor together. The more resistors you have the greater the total resistance. Likewise the longer the wire the greater the resistance. In a parallel circuit, the more resistors you have in parallel the more the resistance decreases, because it increases the number of pathways for the electricity to flow. This would be similar to increasing the diameter of a single piece of wire. The greater the diameter the lower the resistance.

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Provided the cross-section area of the wire is the same the resistance of the wire will increase with length. The longer the wire the higher will be the resistance.

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With an increase in the length of wire, the flow of the electrons will have a much longer distance to travel. As these electrons flow they collide with the atoms inside the wire, this decrease the overall drift velocity of the electrons which increases the resistance of wire. By extension, length of a wire is directly proportional to the resistance of a wire.

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As the length of the wire increases the resistance of the wire also increases. Assuming the temperature of the wire is constant as this will affect its resistance

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Assuming the wire is uniform in length, it will be directly proportional to its length. The temperature must also be constant as this will affect it.

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M
Mini

Resistance of metal wire is directly proportional to length

S
Sana Khalid

resistance

of the long wire is always > resistance

< of short wire

J
Jonathan Haigh

if the wire is made of a uniform material (with constant resistivity) and the wire has constant cross section, the resistance is proportional to length.

N
Nasir Khan

The resistance of a wire is directly proportional to the length of the wire. Think of it as a channel through which the current has to pass. The longer the channel the higher the obstruction to get through the channel.

J
Jay Swope

The longer a wire, the greater its resistance. This varies linearly, doubling the length doubles the resistance. Likewise, halving the length halves the resistance.

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