Circuits

There are three types of  circuits; circuits in series, circuits in parallel and combined circuits.

Series and parallel circuits respectively are known as individual circuits, where as a combined circuit is one in which there are one or multiple series and parallel components to the circuit as a whole.

In a series circuit that has a twelve volt supply the components are all runing off the one voltage so as the current flows through the circuit and across the components the voltage of the components drop for example if you have two light bulbs in a series circuit such as this one:

The light bulbs or components both use six of the twelve volts availible to the total circuit, this is because there is less current due to more resistance in the circuit. When compared to a single bulb in series causes the two bulbs in this circuit to be dimmer.

In a parallel circuit that has a twelve volt supply the components are using the whole twelve volts each so when we look at this three bulb circuit wired in parallel:

We can see that the three bulbs are brighter than the bulbs in series this is because the bulbs are each drawing the maximum availible voltage from the supply although they are still limited by there individual wattage of the bulbs, in a parallel circuit the components draw a consistant amount of current which is higher than that of the series circuit due to less resistance.

In a combined circuit we have series and parallel components to the whole circuit respectively.Of note in the combined circuit when calculations are needed you are to work out the total resistance of the parallel component of the circuit first. with ths kind of circuit there is a share of voltage between the components of the combined circuit, in this type of circuit if we have a twelve volt circuit with two bulbs in parallel and three more bulbs in series in the whole circuit the bulbs in parallel will use the maximum availible voltage each and the bulbs in series will share the remaining volts between them. An example of this is the double filiment bulbs in brake lights where when driving at night if one of the filiments blows the other will still be lit when the headlights are on but will go out when the brake pedal is applied.