SKE Society’s GSS PU College

Department of Physics

Model Viva Questions for PU Second Year Practical Exam

Note: This document covers most of the possible questions, however the examiner
may ask any other (easy/simple) questions related to the experiment.

1. What is electric current?

The rate of flow of charge is called electric current. OR
The net charge passing per unit time through the given area is called
current.
2. What is electrical resistance ?
Electrical resistance is the opposition offered by a conductor to the flow of
electric current.
3. How does the resistance of a conductor depends on its dimensions?
Directly proportional to the length & inversely proportional to the area of
cross-section of the conductor.
4. State Ohm’s law ?
Current through a conductor is directly proportional to voltage or potential
difference across its ends, provided temperature and other physical
quantities are kept constant
5. What is the relation between current (I), potential difference (V) and
resistance(R)?
V=IR
6. What are ohmic and non-ohmic device?
Devices which obey Ohm’s law are called Ohmic devices.
Ex. Ammeter, voltmeter, galvanometer etc.
Devices which do not obey Ohm’s law are called non-ohmic devices.
Ex. semiconductor diode, transistor etc.
7. What is resistivity ?
Resistance of the conductor of unit cross sectional area and unit length
8. On what factors does resistivity of a material depend?
Resistivity depends on the nature (type) of the material and temperature.
9. Does resistivity depend on length and area of cross section of the
material?
No.
10. What is a metre bridge?
Metre Bridge is a device used to measure unknown resistance. It works
on the principle of a balanced Wheatstone’s bridge.
11. What is the balancing condition for wheatstone bridge?
P/Q = R/S when Ig=0 i.e. current through the galvanometer is zero.
12. What is meant by balancing length in a Metre Bridge?
Balancing length is the length of the metre bridge wire at which the
galvanometer shows zero deflection.
13. What is null point?
Null point is the point on the meter bridge wire, at which a galvanometer
connected through jockey shows zero deflection.

OER by Department of Physics, GSS PU College.

14. Thick metal plates are used in a metre bridge for connections. Why?
Thick metal plates have large area of cross section and hence less
resistance. Hence parts of the instruments do not add to any resistance.
15. What is the effective resistance when two resistors are connected in
a) series & b) parallel?
In series Rs = R1+R2 (In series combination the current through each resistor
is the same and p.d. is different)
1 1 1
In parallel = + (In parallel combination the p.d. across each
Rp R 1 R 2
resistor is the same and current is different)
16. What is cell?
Cell is a device used to maintain steady flow of current in the circuit.
17. What is emf of a cell?
Work done by a cell to move a charge of 1C around the circuit. Or
Potential difference between positive and negative electrodes of a cell when
no current is flowing through the cell (or cell is in open circuit).
18. What is terminal p.d.?
Terminal p.d. of a cell is the potential difference between two electrodes of
the cell, when the circuit is closed (current is flowing through the circuit).
19. What is internal resistance of cell?
Opposition offered by the cell itself to the flow of current through it.
20. What is the internal resistance of an ideal cell?
Zero.
21. What is potentiometer.
A device used to a) To measure emf and internal resistance of cell b) To
compare emf of two cells. (It has a wire of length 4 m in our laboratory)
22. What is the principle on which potentiometer works?
Emf of a cell under study is directly proportional to the balancing length.
23. Which solution is used in a lechlanche cell?
NH4Cl
24. What is galvanometer?
It is a device which detects the current flowing through it.
25. What is an ammeter?
Instrument used to measure current.
26. What is a voltmeter?
Instrument used to measure potential difference.
27. How do you connect an ammeter in a circuit?
In Series. ( Because the entire current must pass through it)
28. How do you connect a voltmeter in a circuit?
In parallel. (Because it should not consume any current. And devices in
parallel have same potential difference.)
29. What happens if the experiment involving galvanometer is performed
without high resistance R?
High current will pass through the galvanometer and damage it.
30. Resistance S required to produce half deflection is taken as
galvanometer resistance G. Why?
When K2 is open, the entire current passes only through G and produces a
deflection 𝛉. When we close K2 and unplug S such that current flowing through
galvanometer reduces to half ( deflecton becomes 𝛉/2) and the remaining half
flows through S. Now since the current through both the galvanometer and S is
equal, their resistances must be equal. Thus G = S.

OER by Department of Physics, GSS PU College.

31. How can we convert galvanometer to voltmeter?
By connecting a suitable high resistance in series with the galvanometer.
32. What is resistance of an ideal voltmeter and ideal ammeter?
Infinity for ideal voltmeter. (For real voltmeter it is very high.)

Zero for ideal ammeter. (For real ammeter it is very low.)

33. What is shunt or shunt resistance?
A low restitance connected in parallel with the device. It protects the
device from high voltage or current.
34. Why can’t we use a galvanometer directly as an ammeter or voltmeter?
An ammeter should have very low resistance and a voltmeter should have
very high resistance. But the resistance of a galvanometer is neither very
high nor very low.
35. What is a semiconductor?
Material having electrical conductivity (or resistivity) between that of
conductors and insulators.
36. Mention the types of semiconductors
Intrinsic (pure semiconductors like germanium and silicon) and
Extrinsic (semiconductors doped impurity)

Extrinsic semiconductors are of two types

P-type – doped with trivalent impurity like aluminium and indium.
n-type - doped with pentavalent phosphurus and boron.

37. What is meant by biasing a diode? What is forward and reverse

biasing?
Supplying energy to the p-n junction by applying an external voltage
across the diode is called biasing.

When p-side of the diode is connected to positive terminal of the battery and
n-side of the diode to the negative terminal of the battery, the diode is
forward biased.

When p-side of the diode is connected to negative terminal of the battery

and n-side of the diode is connected to the positive terminal of the battery,
the diode is reverse biased.
38. Name one application of a diode OR name an electronic circuit where
semiconductor diode is used.
Rectifier. (Rectifier converts AC to pulsating DC)
39. What do you mean by cut-in or knee voltage?
The forward voltage of the diode after which current increases sharply is
called knee voltage.
40. What is refractive index?
RI of a medium is defined as the ratio of velocity of light in air/vaccum to
the velocity of light in the given medium.
Ex. RI of Glass - 1.5 Water - 1.33 Air/vacuum -1 Diamond – 2.41
41. State Snell’s law of refraction?
The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of
refraction is a constant for a given pair of media and for a light of given
wavelength.

OER by Department of Physics, GSS PU College.

42. What happens to the ray of light when it travels from rarer to denser
medium & denser to rarer medium?
Rarer to denser : bends towards the normal, speed decreases.
Denser to rarer : bends away from the normal, speed increases.
43. What is formula of refractive index?
c
n= where n - RI, c - speed of light in air, v- speed of light in medium
v
44. How does the refractive index vary with wavelength?
RI is inversely proportional to wavelength of light.
45. What is refraction?
The phenomenon of change in the direction of light when it goes from one
medium to another medium of different optical density.
46. What is normal shift?
Normal shift is the apparent shift in the position of an object placed in one
medium and viewed along the normal, from the other medium.
47. What is principal focus and focal length of a lens?
Paraxial rays incident on a lens, after refraction meet at a point on the
principal axis (called the principal focus). Distance between optic centre
and the principal focus.
48. What are the types of lenses?
Convex ( converging lens, focal length is +ve)
Concave. ( diverging lens, focal length is -ve)
49. How many principal foci are there for a lens?
Two, one on either side of the lens.
50. What are uses of lenses?
Combination of lenses are used in microscopes, telescopes, projectors,
binoculars, cameras, etc.

Important physical quantities and their SI units

Physical quantity SI Unit Symbol

Resistance ohm Ω
Internal Resistance
Electric Current ampere A
Voltage, Terminal pd volt V
Potential Difference
Resistivity Ohm-meter Ωm
EMF Volt or Joule per coulomb V or JC-1
Knee voltage volt V
cut-in voltage
Refractive Index unitless -
Resistance per unit length Ohm per meter Ωm-1
Focal Length meter m
Figure of merit Ampere per division A/div

OER by Department of Physics, GSS PU College.