MYP 5 Physics

Unit 1 : Are our futures electric?

Study Material _ Series and Parallel circuits

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.
There are two fundamental ways in which to connect more than two circuit
components: series and parallel. These two basic connection methods can
be combined to create more complex series-parallel circuits.

What is a Series Connection?

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 series resistors form a single path through which current can flow.

Introduction to Series Circuits—A Series Circuit Example

Now, let’s examine an example of a series circuit as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2. An example of a series circuit.

Here, we have three resistors (labeled R 1, R2, and R3) connected in a long
chain from one battery terminal to the other. Each resistor in a series circuit
shares one electrical node with its nearest neighbor.
Note: The subscript labels—those little numbers to the lower-right of the
letter “R”—are unrelated to the resistor values in ohms. They serve only to
identify one resistor from another.

A series circuit’s defining characteristic is that all components in a series

circuit have the same current flowing through them. There is only one path
for the current to flow. 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.

What Is a Parallel Connection?

The definition of a parallel circuit is a circuit where all components are
connected across each other’s leads as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. An example of a parallel connection of resistors.

In a purely parallel circuit, there are never more than two sets of electrically
common points, no matter how many components are connected. There are
many paths for current flow, but only one voltage across all components.
Introduction to Parallel Circuits—A Parallel Circuit
Example
Let’s look at an example of a parallel circuit as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Example of a parallel circuit.

Again, 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:

1. 1–2–7–8–1
2. 1–2–3–6–7–8–1
3. 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–1

Each individual path through R 1, R2, and R3 (2–7, 3–6, and 4–5) is called a
branch.
A parallel circuit’s defining characteristic is that all components are
connected between the same set of electrically common points. 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. All of the resistors, as well
as the battery, are connected between these two sets of points. This means
that the same voltage (V) is dropped across all components in a parallel
circuit.
Series vs Parallel Circuit Review:
 In a series circuit, all components are connected end-to-end,
forming a single path for current flow.
 In a parallel circuit, all components are connected across each
other, forming exactly two sets of electrically common points.
 A “branch” in a parallel circuit is a path for electric current formed
by one of the load components (such as a resistor).

Current in a Series Circuit

In a series circuit, the same amount of current flows through each component in the circuit. This is because
there is only one path for the current flow. Since electric charge flows through conductors like marbles in a
tube, the rate of flow (marble speed) at any point in the circuit (tube) at any specific point in time must be
equal.
An important caveat to Ohm’s law is that all quantities (voltage, current, resistance, and power) must relate
to each other in terms of the same two points in a circuit. Before we examine the more complex series circuit
in Figure 1, let’s examine this concept for a single resistor circuit.

Using Ohm’s Law in a Single Resistor Circuit

For this initial analysis, we will evaluate the current and voltage for the single resistor circuit in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Series circuit with a battery and a single resistor.

Since points 1 and 2 are connected together with the wire of negligible resistance, as are points 3 and 4, we
can say that point 1 is electrically common to point 2 and that point 3 is electrically common to point 4.
Since the circuit has 9 V of electromotive force between points 1 and 4 (directly across the battery), it must
also drop 9 V between points 2 and 3 (directly across the resistor). This is because Kirchhoff’s Voltage
law states that the sum of all voltages in a loop must equal zero.
Therefore, we can apply Ohm’s Law (I = V/R) to the current through the resistor because we know the
voltage (V) across the resistor and the resistance (R) of that resistor. All terms (V, I, R) apply to the same
two points in the circuit and to that resistor, so we can use Ohm’s law formula with no reservation:

Using Ohm’s Law for Series Circuits With Multiple

Resistors
Returning to Figure 1’s circuit, we can see that the polarity of the 9 V battery
will again result in a current, I, that will flow in a clockwise direction from
point 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 and back to 1. This concept is illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Current in a series circuit with a battery and three resistors.

However, we have one source of voltage and three resistances. From there,
we might consider how we use Ohm’s law here.
In the three-resistor example circuit of Figure 3, we have 9 V between points
1 and 4, which is the amount of electromotive force driving the current
through the series combination of R 1, R2, and R3. However, we cannot take
the value of 9 V and divide it by 3 kΩ, 10 kΩ, or 5 kΩ to try to find a current
value because we don’t know how much voltage is across any one of those
resistors individually.
The voltage value of 9 V is the total quantity for the whole circuit, whereas
the values of 3 kΩ, 10 kΩ, or 5 kΩ are individual quantities for individual
resistors. If we were to plug a value for total voltage into an Ohm’s law
equation with a value for individual resistance, the result would not relate
accurately to any quantity in the real circuit.
For R1, Ohm’s law will relate the amount of voltage across R 1 with the current
through R1, given R1‘s resistance of 3 kΩ:

However, since we don’t know the voltage across R1 (only the total voltage
supplied by the battery across the three-resistor series combination) and we
don’t know the current through R 1, we can’t do any calculations with either
formula. The same goes for R 2 and R3—we can apply Ohm’s law equations if
and only if all terms are representative of their respective quantities
between the same two points in the circuit.
So what can we do? We know the voltage of the source (9 V) applied across
the series combination of R 1, R2, and R3, and we know the resistance of each
resistor. However, since those quantities aren’t in the same context, we can’t
use Ohm’s law to determine the circuit current.
If only we knew what the total resistance was for the circuit, then we could
calculate the total current with our value for total voltage (I = V/R).

How to Calculate Total Resistance in a Series Circuit

This brings us to the second principle of series circuits: the total resistance of
a series circuit is equal to the sum of the individual resistances.
This should intuitively make sense, basically, the more resistors in series that
the current must flow through, the more difficult it will be for the current to
flow.
In the example problem, we had a 3 kΩ, 10 kΩ, and 5 kΩ resistors in series,
giving us a total resistance of 18 kΩ:

In essence, we’ve calculated the total equivalent resistance of R 1, R2, and

R3 combined. Knowing this, we can redraw the circuit (Figure 4) with a single
equivalent resistor representing the series combination of R 1, R2, and R3:

Figure 4. Circuit showing total equivalent resistance of series resistors.

Using Ohm’s Law to Calculate Circuit

Current in a Series Circuit
With all those calculations completed, we now have all the necessary
information to calculate the circuit current for Figure 4 since we have the
voltage between points 1 and 4 (9 V) and the resistance between points 1
and 4 (18 kΩ).
How to Calculate Voltage Drop in a
Series Circuit
Knowing that current is equal through all components of a series circuit (and
we just determined the current through the battery), we can go back to our
original circuit schematic of Figure 1 and note the current through each
component, shown in Figure 5 as:

Figure 5. Calculated current for the series circuit.

Now that we know the amount of current through each resistor, we can use
Ohm’s law to determine the voltage drop across each one (applying Ohm’s
law in its proper context):
 Notice that sum of the voltage drops (1.5 + 5.0 + 2.5 = 9.0 V) is equal to
the battery (supply) voltage of 9 V.
This is the third principle of series circuits—the total voltage drop in a series
circuit equals the sum of the individual voltage drops.

Series Circuit Fundamentals Review:

 All components in a series circuit conduct the same current: I total =
I1 = I2 = . . . I n
 The total equivalent resistance of a series circuit is equal to the sum
of the individual resistances: R total = R1 + R2 + . . . Rn
 The total voltage drop in a series circuit is equal to the sum of the
individual voltage drops V totall = V1 + V2 + . . . Vn

Parallel Circuits and the

Application of Ohm’s Law
In this introduction to parallel resistance circuits, we will explain the three
key principles you should know:

 Voltage: The voltage is equal across all components in a parallel

circuit.
 Current: The total circuit current equals the sum of the individual
branch currents.
 Resistance: The total resistance of a parallel circuit is less than
any of the individual brand resistances.

We’ll study these three principles using the parallel circuit of Figure 1, which
contains three resistors connected in a parallel and a single battery.

Figure 1. Parallel circuit with a battery and three resistors.

Voltage in a Parallel Circuit

The first principle to understand about parallel circuits is that the voltage is
equal across each parallel component. This is because there are only two
sets of electrically common points in a parallel circuit, and the voltage
measured between sets of common points must always be the same at any
given time.
With that concept in mind, in the circuit of Figure 1, nodes 1, 2, 3, and 4 are
the same electrical node. Likewise, nodes 5, 6, 7, and 8 are the same
electrical node. Therefore, the voltage across R 1 is equal to the voltage
across R2, which is equal to the voltage across R 3, and is then equal to the
voltage across the battery (9 V).
Using Ohm’s Law for Parallel Circuits to Determine
Current
Similarly to series circuits, the same caveat for Ohm’s law applies, where:
values for voltage, current, and resistance must be in the same context for
the calculations to work correctly.
In the circuit of Figure 1, we can immediately apply Ohm’s Law to
each resistor to find its current because we know the voltage across each
resistor (9 V) and its resistance.

However, at this point, we still don’t know the total current or total
resistance for this parallel circuit. Despite that, if we think carefully about
what is happening, it should become apparent that the total current must
equal the sum of all individual resistor (“branch”) currents (shown in Figure
2):

Figure 2. Currents in a parallel circuit.

As the total current exits the positive (+) battery terminal at point 1 and
travels through the circuit, some of the flow splits off at point 2 to go through
R1, some more splits off at point 3 to go through R 2, and the remainder goes
through R3. Like a river branching into several smaller streams, the combined
flow rates of all streams must equal the flow rate of the whole river.

The same thing is encountered where the currents through R 1, R2, and
R3 rejoin to flow back to the battery’s negative terminal (-) toward point 8.
The current flow from point 7 to point 8 must equal the sum of the branch
currents through R 1, R2, and R3.

Itotal = IR1 + IR2 + IR3 = 0.9 + 4.5 + 9.0 = 14.4 mA

This is the second principle of parallel circuits: the total parallel circuit
current equals the sum of the individual branch currents.

How to Calculate Total Resistance in a Parallel Circuit

By applying Ohm’s law to the total circuit with voltage (9 V) and current
(14.4 mA), we can calculate the total effective resistance of the parallel
circuit.

Please note something very important here. The total circuit resistance is
only 625 Ω. This is less than any one of the individual resistors.
In a series circuit, the total resistance is the sum of the individual resistances
and is, therefore, always greater than any of the resistors individually.
However, here in the parallel circuit, the opposite is true. Each parallel
resistor added to a circuit reduces the total equivalent resistance.
Mathematically, the relationship between total resistance and individual
resistance in a parallel circuit looks like this:
Source:
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/chpt-5/what-are-
series-and-parallel-circuits/