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5: Series And Parallel Circuits
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5.1: What are “Series” and “Parallel” Circuits?
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Circuits consisting of just one battery and one load resistance are very simple to analyze, but they are not often found in practical applications. Usually, we find circuits where more than two components are connected together.
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5.2: Simple Series Circuits
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5.3: Simple Parallel Circuits
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5.4: Conductance
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5.5: Power Calculations
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An interesting rule for total power versus individual power is that it is additive for any configuration of circuit: series, parallel, series/parallel, or otherwise. Power is a measure of rate of work, and since power dissipated must equal the total power applied by the source(s) (as per the Law of Conservation of Energy in physics), circuit configuration has no effect on the mathematics.
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5.6: Correct use of Ohm’s Law
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5.7: Component Failure Analysis
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5.8: Building Simple Resistor Circuits
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In the course of learning about electricity, you will want to construct your own circuits using resistors and batteries. Some options are available in this matter of circuit assembly, some easier than others. In this section, I will explore a couple of fabrication techniques that will not only help you build the circuits shown in this chapter, but also more advanced circuits.