Circuits:
Series Circuit: A circuit with one conducting pathway
Parallel Circuit: Circuit with two or more conducting pathways
Compound Circuit: Circuit which consists of many circuits within that has both parallel and series circuits combined.
*In a series circuit, the voltage is shared between all components, the amps remain the same throughout the circuit.
* In a parallel circuit, amps are shared between the consumers, the current however, remains the same.
* Electricity will always find the quickest and easiest way to ground, ie. if one consumer between two has greater resistance, electricity will find the alternate route, ie. the consumer with less resistance.
* High volts + low resistance = High wattage
* Low volts + high resistance = Low wattage
We assembled some circuits last week and did measuring of the voltage drop, voltage available, and the CURRENT.
VOLTAGE AVAILABLE: The volts available for a consumer to do work.
VOLTAGE DROP: The volts a consumer is using to do work.
CURRENT: The amps in the circuit.
I blew up 2 multimeters because when I was taking the amps reading, Because, I forgot to make the multimeter a COMPONET in the circuit, I accidently connected it in parallel.
EXAMPLES OF FORMULAE:
POWER = VOLTAGE x CURRENT
Ohms Law; RESISTANCE = VOLTAGE / CURRENT
eg. If the voltage in a circuit is 12V, and the current is 5A and I had to find the power output, then:
P=VxI
12x5=60W
eg. If the voltage in a circuit is 12V and the current 5A and I had to find the resistance, then:
R=V/I
12/5=3.4 Ohms
