Series and Parallel Circuits Analogy

Circuit I: Series Connection of batteries
(See the attachment for image)

Circuit II: Parallel Connection of batteries
(See the attachment for image)

Guidelines

1. The diagrams in page one represents four cells connected in series and parallel circuits respectively. In this exercise, you will make similar connections using three batteries instead of four with a variety of modifications to investigate the relationship between voltage (V) and current (A) with respect to the two models of connection.

2. To complete the circuit in each case, you will need to use extra wires to connect or join the two ends (+ and -).

3. To ascertain whether your circuit is complete or not, click the play button () at the bottom and you will observe electrons moving from one end to another (this is evidence of current flow in a complete circuit)!

4. REMEMBER that the wires used in this experiment like any other electrical cables may have some resistance to the flow of current (electrons). In order to minimize this resistance, you need to adjust the wire resistivity on the right side of your experiment window to the lowest value. You will observe increased speed of electrons as the resistance decreases.

5. To measure the voltage and the current across the two circuits, you will use voltmeter for voltage and Ammeter for current.

6. To measure voltage in series circuit, check the voltmeter box on the right hand side and a voltmeter appears. By dragging, attach the positive end of voltmeter to the positive terminal of your circuit and the negative end to the negative terminal then record the voltage displayed on the voltmeter. You will do the same for parallel circuit.

7. To measure current across each circuit, you will complete the circuit by attaching the two terminal in each circuit (+ and - ) to the Ammeter. The Ammeter can be found by checking Ammeter box on right hand side and dragging the Ammeter to complete the circuit. Break the circuit by deleting one connection wires for terminals and replacing it with Ammeter.

8. While the current is following, you will need to remove one battery in each circuit and observe what happens to electrons flow (current flow).

WORK SHEET

Part I: Series Circuit

A. Voltage across one Battery __________Volts

B. Voltage across the circuit (three batteries) ___________Volts

C. Current across the circuit (three batteries) ____________Amps

D. Calculate the resistance across the circuit in ohms (show your calculations).

E. What happens to the electron flow (current) when you remove one battery?

Part II: Parallel Circuit
F. Voltage across one Battery __________Volts

G. Voltage across the circuit (three batteries) ___________Volts

H. Current across the circuit (three batteries) ____________Amps

I. Calculate the resistance across the circuit in ohms (show your calculations).

J. What happens to the electron flow (current) when you remove one battery?