What is the direction of the current? What’s going on with the voltage? Is it possible to make this more understandable? Intrepid reader, have no fear. When more components join the party, though, things may get sticky. A “branch” in a parallel circuit is a path for electric current formed by one of the load components (such as a resistor).Simple circuits (those with only a few components) are typically quite easy to grasp for novices.In a parallel circuit, all components are connected across each other, forming exactly two sets of electrically common points.
#SERIES AND PARALLEL CIRCUITS SERIES#
Looking at the schematic diagram from Figure 4, we see that points 1, 2, 3, and 4 are all electrically common so are points 5, 6, 7, and 8. Let’s look at an example of a parallel circuit as shown in Figure 4.Īgain, we have three resistors, but this time there are three loops for the current to flow from the positive battery terminal back to the negative terminal:Įach individual path through R 1, R 2, and R 3 (2–7, 3–6, and 4–5) is called a branch.Ī parallel circuit’s defining characteristic is that all components are connected between the same set of electrically common points. Introduction to Parallel Circuits-A Parallel Circuit Example There are many paths for current flow, but only one voltage across all components.
In a purely parallel circuit, there are never more than two sets of electrically common points, no matter how many components are connected. An example of a parallel connection of resistors. The definition of a parallel circuit is a circuit where all components are connected across each other’s leads as shown in Figure 3.įigure 3.
#SERIES AND PARALLEL CIRCUITS FULL#
In the circuit from Figure 2, the current (I) flows clockwise to complete a full loop from the positive battery terminal back to the negative terminal and then through the battery following the path 1–2–3–4–1. There is only one path for the current to flow. They serve only to identify one resistor from another.Ī series circuit’s defining characteristic is that all components in a series circuit have the same current flowing through them. Note: The subscript labels-those little numbers to the lower-right of the letter “R”-are unrelated to the resistor values in ohms. Each resistor in a series circuit shares one electrical node with its nearest neighbor. Here, we have three resistors (labeled R 1, R 2, and R 3) connected in a long chain from one battery terminal to the other. Now, let’s examine an example of a series circuit as shown in Figure 2:įigure 2. Introduction to Series Circuits-A Series Circuit Example
These series resistors form a single path through which current can flow. The definition of a series circuit is a circuit where the components are connected end-to-end in a line as illustrated in Figure 1. These two basic connection methods can be combined to create more complex series-parallel circuits. There are two fundamental ways in which to connect more than two circuit components: series and parallel. Usually, we find circuits where more than two components are connected together. Circuits consisting of just one battery and one load resistance are very simple to analyze, but they are not often found in practical applications.
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