Submitted by

Gopi Nath Sah

Class XII A
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 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher (Mr. ………..) as well as our
principal (……….) who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic
(Write the topic name), which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and i came to know
about so many new things I am really thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame.

Gopi Nath Sah

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 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Gopi Nath Sah of class XII A has successfully completed the investigatory
project on “TO STUDY VARIATION OF CURRENT USING A LDR" under the guidance of Mr.
…………….. .This project is absolutely genuine and doesn't not involve in any kind of plagiarism.
This is in partial fulfillment of Physics practical examination CBSE 2023.

Department of Physics
(Mr. ………………….)

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 INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
i.
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
ii.
1. INTRODUCTION
2
2. AIM & APPARATUS
3
3. PHOTORESISTOR DISCOVERY
4-5
AND MECHANISM
4. PRINCIPLE & THEORY
5-6
5. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF
6-8
COMPONENTS
6. APPLICATIONS
9
7. PROCEDURE
10
8. OBSERVATIONS
11-14
9. RESULT & CONCLUSIONS
15
10. BIBLOGRAPHY
16

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LIGHT DEPENDENT RESISTANCE PROJECT REPORT PHYSICS

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 INTRODUCTION

In the society, sometimes street lights glow in day time due to any reason. In mines area people face
many difficulties due to absence of light in the nights. In frontier and hilly areas, people face many
problems due to damaged street lights.

For solve above these problems, we create a device in which the lights glow in night and in day time,
they off automatically and don't glow. Due to use of it, we can solve above problems and can also
save electricity and men's power.

AIM: To study the variations, in current flowing in a circuit containing a LDR, because of
a variation:-

(a) In the power of the incandescent lamp, used to ‘illuminate’ the LDR. (Keeping all the lamps at a
fixed distance).

(b) In the distance of a incandescent lamp, (of fixed power), used to ‘illuminate’ the LDR.

APPARATUS:

Light Dependent Resistor(LDR),Connecting Wires, Source of different power rating(bulbs), Bulb

Holder , Metre scale, Multi Meter Battery.

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Photo resistor discovery
Photo resistors, or light dependent resistors have been in use for very many years. Photo
resistors have been seen in early forms since the nineteenth century when photoconductivity
in selenium was discovered by Smith in 1873. Since then many variants of photoconductive
devices have been made.
Much useful work was conducted by T. W. Case in 1920 when he published a paper entitled
"Thalofide Cell - a new photo-electric cell".
Other substances including PbS, PbSe and PbTe were studied in the 1930s and 1940s, and then
in 1952, Rollin and Simmons developed their photoconductors using silicon and germanium.

Photoresistor mechanism
A photoresistor or photocell is a component that uses a photoconductor between two contacts. When
this is exposed to light a change in resistance is noted. Photoconductivity - the mechanism behind the
photoresistor - results from the generation of mobile carriers when photons are absorbed by the
semiconductor material used for the photoconductor. While the different types of material used for
light dependent resistors are semiconductors, when used as a photo-resistor, they are used only as a
resistive element and there are no PN junctions. Accordingly the device is purely passive.
There are two types of photoconductor and hence photoresistor:

 Intrinsic photoresistor: This type of photoresistor uses a photoconductive material that

involves excitation of charge carriers from the valence bands to the conduction band.
 Extrinsic photoresistor: This type of photoresistor uses a photoconductive material that
involves excitation of charge carriers between an impurity and the valence band or conduction
band. It requires shallow impurity dopants that are not ionised in the presence of light.

 Extrinisc photoresistors or photocells are generally designed for long wavelength radiation -
often infra-red, but to avoid thermal generation they need to be operated at low temperatures.

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PRINCIPLE

This project is based on Light Dependent Resistance (L.D.R.). Light Dependent Resistance [LDR] is
a resistance, in which opposing power of current depends on the presence of quantity of light present,
i.e. the resistance of LDR increases or decreases, according to quantity of light which falls on it.

If LDR places in darkness, the resistance of LDR increases and when light falls on it, the resistance
of LDR decreases and act as a conductor. Any LDR in the presence of light and darkness changes its
resistance is depends on the different types of LDR.

ADVANTAGES

 Collection of parts of the circuit are easily available.

 Accuracy of this circuit is more than accuracy of other circuits.
 By using laser, it can be used for security purposes.
 It can be used to stop the wastage of electricity.
 The cost of circuit is low.
 This circuit saves the men's power.

USES

 It can be used in street lights.

 It can be used in mines areas.
 It can be used in hilly areas.
 By using laser, it can be used for safety purposes.
 It can be used in frontier areas.
 It can be used in houses.
 It can be used in jail lights.

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BRIEF DISCRIPTION OF COM PONENTS

1. TRANSISTOR:-When a thin slice of p-type is sandwiched between two blocks of n-type, then n-
p-n transistor is formed. It consists of emitter, base, and collector. In the project, common emitter n-
p-n transistor ( BC-147 & SL-100) is used.

2. DIODE:- When a p-type and n-type semiconductors are joined a diode is formed. It conducts when
forward biased and does not conduct when reverse biased. In the project, IN-4007diode is used.

3. RELAY:- It helps to contact and discontact. In the project, we use relay of 6 ohms.

4. CARBON RESISTOR:- A carbon resistor has generally four rings or bands A,B,C and D of
different colours corresponding to the value of resistance. In project, we use carbon resistance of 220
kilo-ohms, 1.5 kilo-ohms and 820 ohms.

5. LDR:- LDR means light dependent resistance which is used to complete the circuit.

6. TRANSFORMER:- Transformer is used to convert low alternating voltage to high alternating

voltage by decreasing the current and vice-versa. We use a transformer of 6-0-6V for the circuit.

Photoresistor

Type Passive

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 Working Photoconductivity
principle

Electronic symbol

The symbol for a photoresistor

7. CAPACITOR:- Capacitor is used to block DC. In the circuit, we use the capacitor of 220mfd and
1000mfd.

8.BULB:- An electric bulb is connected to the circuit when LDR comes in the darkness.

9.PHOTORESISTOR-A photoresistor (or light-dependent resistor, LDR, or photocell) is a light-

controlled variable resistor. The resistance of a photoresistor decreases with increasing incident light
intensity; in other words, it exhibits photoconductivity. A photoresistor can be applied in light-
sensitive detector circuits, and light- and dark-activated switching circuits.
A photoresistor is made of a high resistance semiconductor. In the dark, a photoresistor can have a
resistance as high as several megohms (MΩ), while in the light, a photoresistor can have a resistance
as low as a few hundred ohms. If incident light on a photoresistor exceeds a
certain frequency, photons absorbed by the semiconductor give bound electrons enough energy to
jump into the conduction band. The resulting free electrons (and their hole partners) conduct
electricity, thereby lowering resistance. The resistance range and sensitivity of a photoresistor can
substantially differ among dissimilar devices. Moreover, unique photoresistors may react
substantially differently to photons within certain wavelength bands.
A photoelectric device can be either intrinsic or extrinsic. An intrinsic semiconductor has its
own charge carriers and is not an efficient semiconductor, for example, silicon. In intrinsic devices
the only available electrons are in the valence band, and hence the photon must have enough energy
to excite the electron across the entire band gap. Extrinsic devices have impurities, also
called dopants, added whose ground state energy is closer to the conduction band; since the electrons
do not have as far to jump, lower energy photons (that is, longer wavelengths and lower frequencies)
are sufficient to trigger the device. If a sample of silicon has some of its atoms replaced by phosphorus
atoms (impurities), there will be extra electrons available for conduction. This is an example of an
extrinsic semiconductor.

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Applications

The internal components of a photoelectric control for a typical American streetlight. The
photoresistor is facing rightwards, and controls whether current flows through the heater which opens
the main power contacts. At night, the heater cools, closing the power contacts, energizing the street
light.
Photoresistors come in many types. Inexpensive cadmium sulphide cells can be found in many
consumer items such as camera light meters, clock radios, alarm devices (as the detector for a light
beam), nightlights, outdoor clocks, solar street lamps and solar road studs, etc.
Photoresistors can be placed in streetlights to control when the light is on. Ambient light falling on
the photoresistor causes the streetlight to turn off. Thus energy is saved by ensuring the light is only
on during hours of darkness.
They are also used in some dynamic compressors together with a small incandescent or neon lamp,
or light-emitting diode to control gain reduction. A common usage of this application can be found
in many guitar amplifiers that incorporate an onboard tremolo effect, as the oscillating light patterns
control the level of signal running through the amp circuit.
The use of CdS and CdSe[3] photoresistors is severely restricted in Europe due to the RoHS ban
on cadmium.
Lead sulphide (PbS) and indium antimonide (InSb) LDRs (light-dependent resistors) are used for the
mid-infrared spectral region. Ge:Cu photoconductors are among the best far-infrared detectors
available, and are used for infrared astronomy and infrared spectroscopy.

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 PROCEDURE

1. Choose a specific position for the source and mount it using a holder, make sure it is stable.
2. Select the bulb with the lowest power rating and connect it to the holder as shown in the
figure.
3. Connect the LDR, battery (6V) and the multimeter in series.
4. Set the multimeter to ohm section and select suitable range and measure the resistance with a
bulb on.
5. Similarly switch to current section and move to micro ampere in the multimeter. This gives
the value of the current.
6. Repeat these steps with different power sources at different distances and note down
observations.

OBSERVATIONS :-

The experiment has been conducted by using various sources with different power ratings.
Voltage of the battery = 6 V.

OBSERVATIONS TABLE :-

(a) Variation in current of LDR with lamps of different power, keeping distance fixed.

Distance
Source(Bulb)
between LDR
S.No. Of power Resistance(Ω ) Current(mA)
and the source
imputs(W)
d(cm)
1. 10 15 1310 4.58
2. 10 30 770 7.00
3. 10 60 285 21.00
4. 10 100 195 30.00

1. 20 15 2800 2.14
2. 20 60 650 9.00
3. 20 100 435 13.79

1. 30 15 4300 1.4
2. 30 60 1000 6.00
3. 30 100 660 9.00

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(b) Variation in current of LDR with distance :-

FOR 15 W POWER SOURCE

Distance between LDR

S.No. Resistance(Ω ) Current(µA)
and the source d(cm)
1. 4 1010 5.94
2. 6 1350 4.44
3. 8 1490 4.03
4. 10 1610 3.73
5. 12 1740 3.45
6. 14 1880 3.19
7. 16 2300 2.61
8. 18 2540 2.36
9. 20 2800 2.14
10. 22 3000 2.00
11. 24 3240 1.85

FOR 60 W POWER SOURCE

Distance between LDR

S.No. Resistance(Ω ) Current(mA)
and the source d(cm)
1. 4 105 57
2. 6 180 33
3. 8 230 26
4. 10 280 21
5. 12 360 16
6. 14 440 13
7. 16 500 12
8. 18 575 10
9. 20 675 8.8
10. 22 740 8.1
11. 24 820 7.3

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 FOR 100 W POWER SOURCE

Distance between LDR

S.No. Resistance(Ω ) Current(mA)
and the source d(cm)
1. 4 80 75
2. 6 130 46
3. 8 170 35
4. 10 205 29
5. 12 270 22
6. 14 300 20
7. 16 360 16
8. 18 410 14
9. 20 460 13
10. 22 525 11
11. 24 585 10

CONCLUSION & RESULT

1. The LDR resistance decreases with increase in intensity of light and hence there is an increase
in the flow of current.
2. There is an increase in the current as the distance from the source decreases.
3. The intensity decreases as the distance from the source increases
4. The error lies within the experimental limit.

SOURCES OF ERROR

1. The LDR may not be perpendicular to the source.

2. Connections may be faulty.
3. The experiment should be conducted in a dark room.
4. Measurements should be taken accurately.

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Biblography

1. NCERT CLASS 12 PHYSICS TEXTBOOK

2. www.google.co.in
3. www.wikipedia.com
4. www.yahoo.co.in

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