Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

i am doing the sports drink vs. orange juice challange i need to know what a 9 volt battery clip

Hi hafermco,

A battery clip is the connector that you need to attach your 9V battery to the multimeter. If you search online for "9V battery clip" you should find a few pictures. You can pick one up at someplace like Radioshack and it will probably cost about one dollar.

Good luck with your experiments

tzforbes

thank you soooooooooooooooo much !!!!!!
however i have anouther question.
on the multimeter there is different levels of sensitivety and on my experiment it tells me to use a lower level for tap water distilled water and liquids with less electrolytes and a higyer level for sports drinks and drinks and with more electrolytes in them but my multimeter won't give me a reading because the ammount of electrolytes exeedes the selected range position so can i just use a lower level for all of them?


once again thank you!

In cases where you don't know what the maximum expected voltage or current reading will be, the safe way to use a multimeter is to start on the highest scale to prevent damaging the meter and then switch to the appropriate scale based on the initial reading.

For Ohms resistance readings, the meter provides power. There are no safety issues for the meter as long as the circuit being measured does not provide power too. The lower ohms scale will present a larger short circuit current "output" than the higher ohms scales. On some older analog multi-meters, the higher ohms scales will present a larger open circuit voltage "output" than the lower ohms scales. For extremely sensitive circuits, the safety issue is reversed and you won't damage the meter but you could damage the circuit.

Hope this helps explain the kinds of equipment safety aspects that you should read up in the manual for your specific meter.

Meter accuracy is often a percentage of the full scale reading on a particular scale. For this reason, the most accurate reading will be the one that is obtained on the lowest scale it is possible to take the reading on and not exceed the maximum reading on the scale.