Do Different Resistor Combinations Still Make a Lie Detector Functional?

Hi again! It's me. Sorry in my last Instructable I didn't mention who I was, so let's start there. My name is Hadley, I'm almost 13, and I live in Rutland, MA. Also, I am a 7th grader at Central Tree Middle School. For this Instructable, I'm going to be showing you an experiment that's explainable by the title. So basically, how this is going to work is I'm going to construct this and then replace the resistor.

Hypothesis: Different resistor combinations do not make the lie detector functional.

- An "Elenco" Classic set of Snap Circuits

- A whole lot of patience

I think this step explains itself, but what I'm doing is making the lie detector from the manual before I tweak it. I've attached pictures of what it's supposed to look like. The resistors that are used in the original build are R1 and R3.

Link for the instruction booklet: Instruction Booklet (page 16 is lie detector)

So, then again, a self-explanatory step. I switched both resistors to R4 and R5, but I'm not done there. You can change it up however you want, I just chose random numbers. I made a table with every possible combination I could think of of resistors. I made three columns with one labeled "Combination", one labeled "Functional?", and one labeled "Notes." I added the original combination, which is R1+R3. That was optional, though. The video in the next step is R1 and R3 working in action. I'll be including a video for each combination.

This is R1 and R3 working in action. Take note that this is how the lie detector is supposed to work. This is kind of a given, but I'm gonna say this passed. I'm evaluating this on a fail/pass scale.

This combination worked half and half. The sound worked great, but the neither light worked. Technically, the lights are what makes it work, so I'm gonna call this one a fail. Next combo is R2 and R4.

So I know I said that I was going to test out every single combination, but that'll bore both me and you and I don't want that. I think I'm just going to do a couple more combinations and then I'll be done. But now I'm doing R2 and R4, which was functional. It worked perfectly.

This combination worked. The lights worked, and the sound worked as well. This was a pass, big time.

This combination didn't work. The lights did not work, and the sound barely worked. This was a fail.

This combination worked. The lights worked, and the sound worked as well. This was a pass.

I tried 5 (technically there's 6, but one is the regular one) different combinations and none really worked the best. R3 & 5 worked the worst, by far.

Conclusion: Different resistors do work to make a fully effective lie detector. My hypothesis was wrong.