Series and Parallel Circuits

Simple circuits (ones with only a few components) are usually fairly straightforward for beginners to
understand. But, things can get sticky when other components come to the party. Where's the
current going? What's the voltage doing? Can this be simplified for easier understanding? Fear not,
intrepid reader. Valuable information follows.
In this tutorial, we’ll first discuss the difference between series circuits and parallel circuits, using
circuits containing the most basic of components -- resistors and batteries -- to show the difference
between the two configurations. We’ll then explore what happens in series and parallel circuits when
you combine different types of components, such as capacitors and inductors.

Series Circuits
Nodes and Current Flow
Before we get too deep into this, we need to mention what a node is. It's nothing fancy, just
representation of an electrical junction between two or more components. When a circuit is modeled
on a schematic, these nodes represent the wires between components.

Example schematic with four uniquely colored nodes.

That's half the battle towards understanding the difference between series and parallel. We also
need to understand how current flows through a circuit. Current flows from a high voltage to a
lower voltage in a circuit. Some amount of current will flow through every path it can take to get to
the point of lowest voltage (usually called ground). Using the above circuit as an example, here's
how current would flow as it runs from the battery's positive terminal to the negative:

Current (indicated by the blue, orange, and pink lines) flowing through the same example circuit as
above. Different currents are indicated by different colors.
Notice that in some nodes (like between R1 and R2) the current is the same going in as at is coming
out. At other nodes (specifically the three-way junction between R 2, R3, and R4) the main (blue)
current splits into two different ones. That's the key difference between series and parallel!

Series Circuits Defined

Two components are in series if they share a common node and if the same current flows through
them. Here's an example circuit with three series resistors:

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There's only one way for the current to flow in the above circuit. Starting from the positive terminal of
the battery, current flow will first encounter R1. From there the current will flow straight to R2, then to
R3, and finally back to the negative terminal of the battery. Note that there is only one path for current
to follow. These components are in series.

Parallel Circuits

Parallel Circuits Defined

If components share two common nodes, they are in parallel. Here's an example schematic of three
resistors in parallel with a battery:

From the positive battery terminal, current flows to R1... and R2, and R3. The node that connects the
battery to R1 is also connected to the other resistors. The other ends of these resistors are similarly
tied together, and then tied back to the negative terminal of the battery. There are three distinct
paths that current can take before returning to the battery, and the associated resistors are said to
be in parallel.
Where series components all have equal currents running through them, parallel components all
have the same voltage drop across them -- series:current::parallel:voltage.

Series and Parallel Circuits Working Together

From there we can mix and match. In the next picture, we again see three resistors and a battery.
From the positive battery terminal, current first encounters R1. But, at the other side of R1 the node
splits, and current can go to both R2 and R3. The current paths through R2 and R3 are then tied
together again, and current goes back to the negative terminal of the battery.

In this example, R2 and R3 are in parallel with each other, and R1 is in series with the parallel
combination of R2 and R3.

1. Voltage: Voltage is equal across all components in a parallel circuit.

2. Current: The total circuit current is equal to the sum of the individual
branch currents.

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 3. Resistance: Individual resistances diminish to equal a smaller total
resistance rather than add to make the total.

PARALLEL CIRCUIT SAMPLE

SERIES CIRCUIT SAMPLE

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GEURG OHM - OHMs LAW

History
The first, and perhaps most
important, the relationship
between current, voltage, and
resistance is called Ohm’s
Law, discovered by Georg
Simon Ohm and published in
his 1827 paper, The Galvanic
Circuit Investigated
Mathematically.

Georg Ohm

In January 1781, before Georg Ohm's work, Henry Cavendish experimented with Leyden jars and

glass tubes of varying diameter and length filled with salt solution. He measured the current by
noting how strong a shock he felt as he completed the circuit with his body. Cavendish wrote that the
"velocity" (current) varied directly as the "degree of electrification" (voltage). He did not communicate
his results to other scientists at the time,[5] and his results were unknown until Maxwell published
them in 1879.[6]
Francis Ronalds delineated “intensity” (voltage) and “quantity” (current) for the dry pile—a high
voltage source—in 1814 using a gold-leaf electrometer. He found for a dry pile that the relationship
between the two parameters was not proportional under certain meteorological conditions. [7][8]
Ohm did his work on resistance in the years 1825 and 1826, and published his results in 1827 as the
book Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet ("The galvanic circuit investigated
mathematically").[9] He drew considerable inspiration from Fourier's work on heat conduction in the
theoretical explanation of his work. For experiments, he initially used voltaic piles, but later used
a thermocouple as this provided a more stable voltage source in terms of internal resistance and
constant voltage. He used a galvanometer to measure current, and knew that the voltage between
the thermocouple terminals was proportional to the junction temperature. He then added test wires
of varying length, diameter, and material to complete the circuit.

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Ohm's law was probably the most important of the early quantitative descriptions of the physics of
electricity. We consider it almost obvious today. When Ohm first published his work, this was not the
case; critics reacted to his treatment of the subject with hostility. They called his work a "web of
naked fancies"[10] and the German Minister of Education proclaimed that "a professor who preached
such heresies was unworthy to teach science."[11] The prevailing scientific philosophy in Germany at
the time asserted that experiments need not be performed to develop an understanding of nature
because nature is so well ordered, and that scientific truths may be deduced through reasoning
alone.[12] Also, Ohm's brother Martin, a mathematician, was battling the German educational system.
These factors hindered the acceptance of Ohm's work, and his work did not become widely
accepted until the 1840s. However, Ohm received recognition for his contributions to science well
before he died.
In the 1850s, Ohm's law was known as such and was widely considered proved, and alternatives,
such as "Barlow's law", were discredited, in terms of real applications to telegraph system design, as
discussed by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1855.[13]
The electron was discovered in 1897 by J. J. Thomson, and it was quickly realized that it is the
particle (charge carrier) that carries electric currents in electric circuits. In 1900 the first (classical)
model of electrical conduction, the Drude model, was proposed by Paul Drude, which finally gave a
scientific explanation for Ohm's law. In this model, a solid conductor consists of a stationary lattice
of atoms (ions), with conduction electrons moving randomly in it. A voltage across a conductor
causes an electric field, which accelerates the electrons in the direction of the electric field, causing
a drift of electrons which is the electric current. However the electrons collide with and scatter off of
the atoms, which randomizes their motion, thus converting the kinetic energy added to the electron
by the field to heat (thermal energy). Using statistical distributions, it can be shown that the average
drift velocity of the electrons, and thus the current, is proportional to the electric field, and thus the
voltage, over a wide range of voltages.
The development of quantum mechanics in the 1920s modified this picture somewhat, but in modern
theories the average drift velocity of electrons can still be shown to be proportional to the electric
field, thus deriving Ohm's law. In 1927 Arnold Sommerfeld applied the quantum Fermi-Dirac
distribution of electron energies to the Drude model, resulting in the free electron model. A year
later, Felix Bloch showed that electrons move in waves (Bloch waves) through a solid crystal lattice,
so scattering off the lattice atoms as postulated in the Drude model is not a major process; the
electrons scatter off impurity atoms and defects in the material. The final successor, the modern
quantum band theory of solids, showed that the electrons in a solid cannot take on any energy as
assumed in the Drude model but are restricted to energy bands, with gaps between them of
energies that electrons are forbidden to have. The size of the band gap is a characteristic of a
particular substance which has a great deal to do with its electrical resistivity, explaining why some
substances are electrical conductors, some semiconductors, and some insulators.
While the old term for electrical conductance, the mho (the inverse of the resistance unit ohm), is still
used, a new name, the siemens, was adopted in 1971, honoring Ernst Werner von Siemens. The
siemens is preferred in formal papers.
In the 1920s, it was discovered that the current through a practical resistor actually has statistical
fluctuations, which depend on temperature, even when voltage and resistance are exactly constant;
this fluctuation, now known as Johnson–Nyquist noise, is due to the discrete nature of charge. This
thermal effect implies that measurements of current and voltage that are taken over sufficiently short
periods of time will yield ratios of V/I that fluctuate from the value of R implied by the time average
or ensemble average of the measured current; Ohm's law remains correct for the average current, in
the case of ordinary resistive materials.
Ohm's work long preceded Maxwell's equations and any understanding of frequency-dependent
effects in AC circuits. Modern developments in electromagnetic theory and circuit theory do not
contradict Ohm's law when they are evaluated within the appropriate limits.

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Voltage, Current, and Resistance
An electric circuit is formed when a conductive path is created to allow electric charge to
continuously move. This continuous movement of electric charge through the conductors of a
circuit is called a current, and it is often referred to in terms of “flow,” just like the flow of a liquid
through a hollow pipe.

The force motivating charge carriers to “flow” in a circuit is called voltage. Voltage is a specific
measure of potential energy that is always relative between two points. When we speak of a
certain amount of voltage being present in a circuit, we are referring to the measurement of
how much potential energy exists to move charge carriers from one particular point in that
circuit to another particular point. Without reference to two  particular points, the term “voltage”
has no meaning.

Current tends to move through the conductors with some degree of friction, or opposition to
motion. This opposition to motion is more properly called resistance. The amount of current in a
circuit depends on the amount of voltage and the amount of resistance in the circuit to oppose
current flow. Just like voltage, resistance is a quantity relative between two points. For this
reason, the quantities of voltage and resistance are often stated as being “between” or “across”
two points in a circuit.

Units of Measurement: Volt, Amp, and Ohm

To be able to make meaningful statements about these quantities in circuits, we need to be able
to describe their quantities in the same way that we might quantify mass, temperature, volume,
length, or any other kind of physical quantity. For mass we might use the units of “kilogram” or
“gram.” For temperature, we might use degrees Fahrenheit or degrees Celsius. Here are the
standard units of measurement for electrical current, voltage, and resistance:

The “symbol” given for each quantity is the standard alphabetical letter used to represent that
quantity in an algebraic equation. Standardized letters like these are common in the disciplines
of physics and engineering and are internationally recognized. The “unit abbreviation” for each
quantity represents the alphabetical symbol used as a shorthand notation for its particular unit
of measurement. And, yes, that strange-looking “horseshoe” symbol is the capital Greek letter Ω,
just a character in a foreign alphabet (apologies to any Greek readers here).

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Each unit of measurement is named after a famous experimenter in electricity: The amp after the
Frenchman Andre M. Ampere, the volt after the Italian Alessandro Volta, and the ohm after the
German Georg Simon Ohm.

The mathematical symbol for each quantity is meaningful as well. The “R” for resistance and the
“V” for voltage are both self-explanatory, whereas “I” for current seems a bit weird. The “I” is
thought to have been meant to represent “Intensity” (of charge flow), and the other symbol for
voltage, “E,” stands for “Electromotive force.” From what research I’ve been able to do, there
seems to be some dispute over the meaning of “I.” The symbols “E” and “V” are interchangeable
for the most part, although some texts reserve “E” to represent voltage across a source (such as
a battery or generator) and “V” to represent voltage across anything else.

All of these symbols are expressed using capital letters, except in cases where a quantity
(especially voltage or current) is described in terms of a brief period of time (called an
“instantaneous” value). For example, the voltage of a battery, which is stable over a long period
of time, will be symbolized with a capital letter “E,” while the voltage peak of a lightning strike at
the very instant it hits a power line would most likely be symbolized with a lower-case letter “e”
(or lower-case “v”) to designate that value as being at a single moment in time. This same lower-
case convention holds true for current as well, the lower-case letter “i” representing current at
some instant in time. Most direct-current (DC) measurements, however, being stable over time,
will be symbolized with capital letters.

Coulomb and Electric Charge

One foundational unit of electrical measurement often taught in the beginnings of electronics
courses but used infrequently afterward, is the unit of the coulomb, which is a measure of
electric charge proportional to the number of electrons in an imbalanced state. One coulomb of
charge is equal to 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons. The symbol for electric charge quantity
is the capital letter “Q,” with the unit of coulombs abbreviated by the capital letter “C.” It so
happens that the unit for current flow, the amp, is equal to 1 coulomb of charge passing by a
given point in a circuit in 1 second of time. Cast in these terms, current is the rate of electric
charge motion through a conductor.

As stated before, voltage is the measure of potential energy per unit charge available to motivate
current flow from one point to another. Before we can precisely define what a “volt” is, we must
understand how to measure this quantity we call “potential energy.” The general metric unit for
energy of any kind is the joule, equal to the amount of work performed by a force of 1 newton
exerted through a motion of 1 meter (in the same direction). In British units, this is slightly less
than 3/4 pound of force exerted over a distance of 1 foot. Put in common terms, it takes about 1
joule of energy to lift a 3/4 pound weight 1 foot off the ground, or to drag something a distance
of 1 foot using a parallel pulling force of 3/4 pound. Defined in these scientific terms, 1 volt is
equal to 1 joule of electric potential energy per (divided by) 1 coulomb of charge. Thus, a 9-volt
battery releases 9 joules of energy for every coulomb of charge moved through a circuit.

These units and symbols for electrical quantities will become very important to know as we
begin to explore the relationships between them in circuits.

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The Ohm’s Law Equation
Ohm’s principal discovery was that the amount of electric current through a metal conductor in
a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage impressed across it, for any given temperature.
Ohm expressed his discovery in the form of a simple equation, describing how voltage, current,
and resistance interrelate:

In this algebraic expression, voltage (E) is equal to current (I) multiplied by resistance (R). Using
algebra techniques, we can manipulate this equation into two variations, solving for I and for R,
respectively:

Analyzing Simple Circuits with Ohm’s Law

Let’s see how these equations might work to help us analyze simple circuits:

In the above circuit, there is only one source of voltage (the battery, on the left) and only one
source of resistance to current (the lamp, on the right). This makes it very easy to apply Ohm’s
Law. If we know the values of any two of the three quantities (voltage, current, and resistance) in
this circuit, we can use Ohm’s Law to determine the third.

In this first example, we will calculate the amount of current (I) in a circuit, given values of
voltage (E) and resistance (R):

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What is the amount of current (I) in this circuit?

In this second example, we will calculate the amount of resistance (R) in a circuit, given values of
voltage (E) and current (I):

What is the amount of resistance (R) offered by the lamp?

In the last example, we will calculate the amount of voltage supplied by a battery, given values
of current (I) and resistance (R):

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What is the amount of voltage provided by the battery?

Ohm’s Law Triangle Technique

Ohm’s Law is a very simple and useful tool for analyzing electric circuits. It is used so often in the
study of electricity and electronics that it needs to be committed to memory by the serious
student. For those who are not yet comfortable with algebra, there’s a trick to remembering how
to solve for anyone quantity, given the other two. First, arrange the letters E, I, and R in a triangle
like this:

If you know E and I, and wish to determine R, just eliminate R from the picture and see what’s
left:

If you know E and R, and wish to determine I, eliminate I and see what’s left:

Lastly, if you know I and R, and wish to determine E, eliminate E and see what’s left:

Eventually, you’ll have to be familiar with algebra to seriously study electricity and electronics,
but this tip can make your first calculations a little easier to remember. If you are comfortable
with algebra, all you need to do is commit E=IR to memory and derive the other two formulae
from that when you need them!

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REVIEW:

 Voltage is measured in volts, symbolized by the letters “E” or “V”.

 Current is measured in amps, symbolized by the letter “I”.
 Resistance is measured in ohms, symbolized by the letter “R”.
 Ohm’s Law: E = IR ; I = E/R ; R = E/I

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