Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm doing the electrolyte challenge and I have a question with the multimeter. Can I set my multimeter to ADC 200m instead of DCA? My multimeter doesn't have a DCA setting on it.

Also, all of my readings are very low. I tested Powerade and I got 1.5 milliamps, which would be converted to around 0.0001666...7 electrolytes. Is it supposed to be that low?

It's unusual for a meter to mark the DC amperage setting as ADC but some do it that way. If the volts setting is VDC then yes, the ADC setting is probably the one you want. I can confirm that by looking up the meter on the internet if you'd post back with the manufacturer and model number.

I haven't done the experiment myself so I don't know what the converted numbers come out to but you are expecting to read current as small number of milliamps.

Howard

It is a CRAFTSMAN Digital Multimeter 82015.

Thank you so much for your help

Thanks for sending the model number. Yes, the 'ADC' section on the control is DC amps, and that meter has range settings for 200 microamps (uA), 2000 microamps or 2 milliamps, 20 milliamps , 200 milliamps and 10 amps. When making your readings, start with one of the higher settings, like the 200 milliamps range and if the numbers look low, switch to a lower scale until you get a number with more precision. Changing from the 200 milliamp settings by clicks down towards 200 microamps will effective multiply the usable range of the meter by 10. You should be able to get nice data with that meter.

Howard

(for people following along, it looks like this: )

Ok thank you so much!