Consider a strain gauge that has a nominal resistance of 100 Ω and a gauge factor, G, of 2. If
the gauge has a strain reading of ε = 0.001.
a) what is the corresponding the change in resistance ΔR? [5pts]
b) Assume that this strain gauge is connected as one arm of a Wheatstone Bridge that is balanced when all arms have
a resistance of R1=R2=R3=R4=100 Ω and is provided a input voltage of 20 V. Determine what the corresponding
change of voltage would be for the above strain reading. [5 pts]
c) Design (i.e., determine the gain and the suitable input & feedback resistances) a differencing operational amplifier
to ensure that this particular voltage change reading is at least 0.1 V [5 pts]
d) If this above system is used to measure strain over the range ε = [0, 0.01], assuming that the Wheatstone Bridge
behaves in a linear manner over this range and that a 12-bit ADC is available, determine what the assumed input
range in volts should be to maximize the measurement resolution. For this ADC configuration, what is the
quantization error of a strain measurement? [10 pts]