Scribd
Upload
209 views

Series and Parallel Circuits Lab 7

1) The experiment measured the brightness of light bulbs connected in series and parallel circuits. When bulbs were in series, their combined resistance increased and brightness decreased. In parallel, resistance decreased and brightness increased. 2) Christmas lights are more reliable in parallel because if one bulb fails, the others remain lit, whereas a series circuit fails if any bulb burns out. 3) Having too many parallel resistors can overload a power supply by increasing total current draw beyond its limits, similar to tripping a home circuit breaker with too many appliances.

Uploaded by

Holly Shankin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
209 views

Series and Parallel Circuits Lab 7

1) The experiment measured the brightness of light bulbs connected in series and parallel circuits. When bulbs were in series, their combined resistance increased and brightness decreased. In parallel, resistance decreased and brightness increased. 2) Christmas lights are more reliable in parallel because if one bulb fails, the others remain lit, whereas a series circuit fails if any bulb burns out. 3) Having too many parallel resistors can overload a power supply by increasing total current draw beyond its limits, similar to tripping a home circuit breaker with too many appliances.

Uploaded by

Holly Shankin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Series and Parallel Circuits Lab 7

Submitted by Holly Shankin


Lab Partners: Katie, Colin
Submitted on 3/16/2020
Introduction
Apparatus-
Circuit board with wires, light bulbs, digital multimeter, batteries
Procedure
The first thing we did in this experiment was calculate that the resistance in series equals R+R and in
parallel equals (R/2). Then we made sure the circuit had 4 batteries and we attached either side of a
resistor to either side of the battery. After noting the brightness of the bulbs, we then connected another
bulb in between the connection between the battery and original bulb. We noted the brightness of these
bulbs. Then we reverted to the original one bulb setup and connected the second bulb so that it was
hooked up from either side of the original bulb, in parallel. We noted the brightness of these bulbs. We
tested each other two double bulb set ups to see how they would react if we removed one bulb and noted
the change.
Then we connect 3 bulbs so that two would go in series to the battery and one would go in parallel to
another bulb. We then noted the brightness and measured the voltage and each of the bulbs.
Precautions
- We made sure our results were reasonable with the instructor
- We double checked our set up with the pictures and instructor
- We calculated suspected results before performing the experiment to see what would likely
happen
Data
(all explanations are in the questions)
Resistance of Light
Bulbs
R(series) R+R
R(parallel) R/2

Series
Prediction Light would dim
What happened Light dimmed
Remove bulb
Prediction No Change
What happened Both went out
Series and Parallel Combined
Brightness Voltage
Single in Series Very Bright 3.5 V
Two in Parallel Very Dim 1.25V

Errors

- The multimeter did not measure one consistent voltage


- The metal within the circuit did not always have full contact
Questions
Question 1. Explain your results for both the series and parallel circuits based on Ohm’s Law.

V=IR, the voltage does not change so when R increased the current (I), which controls the brightness of the light,
𝐼𝐼𝑓𝑓 ×𝑅𝑅
must decrease, and vice versa. When in series, 𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑖 𝑅𝑅 = 𝐼𝐼𝑓𝑓 (𝑅𝑅 + 𝑅𝑅) so that 𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑖 > 𝐼𝐼𝑓𝑓 . When in parallel 𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑖 𝑅𝑅 = 2 ,
so 𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑖 < 𝐼𝐼𝑓𝑓 . A lower I means a dimmer bulb.

Question 2. Use your findings to explain why strings of lights such as Christmas lights are more reliable
when the lights are all strung together in parallel.
When in series by removing a bulb, the circuit becomes disconnected because it is in on continuous loop,
each resistor (or lightbulb) connecting the circuit together, when one disconnected the entire loop is
disrupted. When in parallel the light bulbs connection the power source is independent of one another,
even though their current (brightness) is affected by the other ones.
Question 3. Use Ohm’s law to explain why having too many parallel resistors can cause a high current to flow
out of the power supply (this is why circuit breakers trip when you plug in too many appliances on a single circuit
in your house).

Too many parallel resistors can cause a high current because it takes a lot of power to make all of the bulbs
considerably very bright and if to much energy (voltage) is going through a single setup it can overwhelm the
system.

Question 4. Do the voltages 𝑉𝑉ab and 𝑉𝑉bc corroborate your observations of the brightness? Explain.

Yes, it makes sense because the a higher voltage (𝑉𝑉ab ) means more potential energy or consumption of energy
and it takes more energy for it to be bright so it is reasonable for it to be a higher value than 𝑉𝑉bc .

Question 5. Here is a more advanced experimental problem encountered in research labs. As you
measured the voltage drop across the light bulb using a multimeter, you may have wondered why we
ignored the current loop created by the multimeter leads. To be sure, a little bit of current does get
diverted through the multimeter, but the meter is made to have a high internal resistance to greatly restrict
the current flowing through it. Let’s do a little “back of the envelope calculation” to see how much
current flows through the meter. To do this, we can treat the meter like a large resistor in parallel with a
bulb. Sketch the circuit labeling the meter and bulb as two separate resistors connected in parallel to the
voltage source. Then show mathematically that if the meter’s internal resistance is 1000 times higher than
the bulb’s resistance, the current in the meter is 1000 times less than through the bulb. This shows why
measuring voltage with a multimeter does not affect the circuit.
A multimeter has some value or resistance to it, an extremely high amount, because it is connected to the
circuit when measuring the voltage, it has some effect on the system. By having an extremely large
resistance it has very little effect on the system. The current in the meter is 1000 time less than through
the bulb because the voltage in both are the same so we can label the resistance as R so mathematically,
𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼 𝐼𝐼
𝐼𝐼𝑚𝑚 (1000𝑅𝑅) = 𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼 → 𝐼𝐼𝑅𝑅 =
1000𝑅𝑅
→ 𝐼𝐼𝑅𝑅 =
1000
.

Conclusion
In conclusion we are able to see how resistance affects the current, but we are not able to establish any
real or specific equation to define this relationship. We are working under the assumption that current
determines brightness and if that is true than we determined that a higher current means a brighter bulb.
We also were able to see that resistors (bulbs) in series have a higher resistance than one alone, and
resistors in parallel have a weaker combined resistance.

You might also like