SERIES AND PARALLEL CIRCUIT

SERIES AND PARALLEL

CIRCUIT

WHAT IS SERIES CIRCUIT?

• A series circuit is one that has more than one resistor, but only one path through which the electricity (electrons) flows. From one end of the cell (battery), the electrons move along one path with NO branches, through the resistors, to the other end of the cell. All the components in a series circuit are connected end-to-end.
• Resistor- is anything that uses some of the power from the cell.
• Each time there is damage (break) in any one of the resistors the entire circuit will not function. For example, if one light bulb goes out, all the other lights will go off because the electricity path in the broken bulb is cut off.
• This circuit is commonly used in 

WHAT IS PARALLEL CIRCUIT?

• A Parallel circuit is one with several different paths for the electricity to travel. It's like a river that has been divided up into smaller streams, however, all the streams come back to the same point to form the river once again.
• In a parallel circuit, each device is placed in its own separate branch. The presence of branch lines means that there are multiple pathways by which charge can traverse the external circuit. Each charge passing through the loop of the external circuit will pass through a single resistor present in a single branch.

BASIC RULES OF PARALLEL CIRCUIT:

1. A parallel circuit has two or more paths for current to flow through.
2. Voltage is the same across each component of the parallel circuit.
3. The sum of the currents through each path is equal to the total current that flows from the source.
4. If one of the parallel paths is broken, current will continue to flow in all the other paths.