Series and parallel

[Monkeyblaine]

Can someone just please clarify I have the correct understanding here. With a series circuit with two resistors in it the voltage from the source is dropped equally over the loads and reduced to mV on the outgoing side. Now if you tap into it before it hits those resistors you have created a parallel path for the voltage to travel and if you place another resistor after this the voltage will be the same as what it is at the first original pair of resistors in series. Much the same as a domestic installation feed in to load then take a feed out to another load, creating a parallel path for the voltage. So whether it be a battery supply or main supply, If you tap off the cable before it hits the load and then attach another load the voltage will be the same in other words parallel circuits.

 

[Darkwood]

The easy pit to fall in is you run the cables in series from light to light fitting but the actual connection of the cores is parallel..... thats where most newbies get confused.

If you have say 3 lights of same switch you loop them with a T&E now standing back it looks like a typical series set up ...cable in - cable out but because the cable is multi-cored this isn't the case as the connections are in parallel.

 

[bartkusal]

Can someone just please clarify I have the correct understanding here. With a series circuit with two resistors in it the voltage from the source is dropped equally over the loads and reduced to mV on the outgoing side. Now if you tap into it before it hits those resistors you have created a parallel path for the voltage to travel and if you place another resistor after this the voltage will be the same as what it is at the first original pair of resistors in series. Much the same as a domestic installation feed in to load then take a feed out to another load, creating a parallel path for the voltage. So whether it be a battery supply or main supply, If you tap off the cable before it hits the load and then attach another load the voltage will be the same in other words parallel circuits.

Equally- correct if resistors are both the same value
And yes, most of the loads are connected in parallel if there is more than one load, cos you have L an N going in each load, but if you have one load, you can say it’s the series circuit.

 

[Monkeyblaine]

Oh yeah I understand that because at all points your tapping off the line and neutral conductors in parallel not in series. So a lighting circuit is almost a parallel circuit within a parallel circuit. Is my first statement correct though. Each component has its own tapped of line a neutral parallel circuit.

 

[tazz]

Think abaut Christmas tree lights, they are wired in series...so the voltage decrease after passing through each lamp (the lamp having a resistance) As Darkwood has stated, think now abaut domestic lighting circuit, all lamps are wired in parallel, so the voltage is equal to all lamps

 

[Darkwood]

Equally- correct if resistors are both the same value
And yes, most of the loads are connected in parallel if there is more than one load, cos you have L an N going in each load, but if you have one load, you can say it’s the series circuit.

OP is already confused YES - one resistor on its own is connected in both parallel and series depending on your view but the term parallel or series is only used when you have more than 1 load, its not applied to a single load.

 

[Darkwood]

Think abaut Christmas tree lights, they are wired in series...so the voltage decrease after passing through each lamp (the lamp having a resistance) As Darkwood has stated, think now abaut domestic lighting circuit, all lamps are wired in parallel, so the voltage is equal to all lamps

Poor example as xmas tree lights come in both series and parallel but yes you correct ..... usually if you pull a xmas lamp out and they all go out then its series if the rest stay on then its parallel.

 

[Monkeyblaine]

Without people trying to get to technical. Parallel paths given to voltage before said loads. Am I right or wrong. Just for the fundamentals.

 

[telectrix]

just to further confuse..... lights are wired in parallel as said before, but the switches are in series with each light.

 

[Monkeyblaine]

Because all the voltage isn't dropping actoss resistors on series it now has another path to take aswell. Right or wrong?

- - - Updated - - -

Because all the voltage isn't dropping actoss resistors on series it now has another path to take aswell. Right or wrong?

 

[Darkwood]

we are not getting technical and in answer yes if you loop off the input to a load then it dosn't go through the load before your connect to it and it has the same voltage .... excluding volts drop for this example.

 

[Fast&Rough]

Electricity allways wants to go the easiest route

 

[telectrix]

imagine the resistors and their associated wiring as water pipes, water will flow down each branch. the rate of flow is proportional to the cross sectional area of the pipe. same with electric current. current flow is inversely proportional to the resistance. if you have water flowing into a junction, the water flowing out through however many pipes branch off is the same as that flowing in, same with current. ( kirchoff's law).

 

[Monkeyblaine]

Dark wood I wasn't getting funny sorry. I just wanted to make sure my basic knowledge was correct before I start to build on it and get a further grip of the more technical stuff. And surely switches are just points a long a circuit as to tap off on in parallel for certain groups of lights. Not in series.

 

[telectrix]

i meant that the switch was in series with it's own load.

 

[Monkeyblaine]

But again surely that's just to the first light. Because if it were 10 spots they'd all be in parallel from
Switch. But I'm a complete novice so I do struggle with some understandings. Also with a battery obviously it only has limited negatively charged electrons so adding parallel circuits to a battery must ghastly depreciate the voltage at each parallel branch and will this happen equally across branches as battery depletes?

 

[Monkeyblaine]

Fastly depreciate*

 

[Marvo]

Because all the voltage isn't dropping actoss resistors on series it now has another path to take aswell. Right or wrong?

You might be getting confused between voltage and current. Voltage doesn't 'take a path', current does. Current flows physically through the wires, voltage is the force that pushes (and pulls) it. If you think of the main electrical supply as a pump and the wires as pipes then voltage would be the pressure the pump is creating, water flow would be the equivalent of the current flowing in the circuit.

 

[telectrix]

But again surely that's just to the first light. Because if it were 10 spots they'd all be in parallel from
Switch. But I'm a complete novice so I do struggle with some understandings. Also with a battery obviously it only has limited negatively charged electrons so adding parallel circuits to a battery must ghastly depreciate the voltage at each parallel branch and will this happen equally across branches as battery depletes?

yes 10 spots would be in parallel. the 10 spots together constitute the load through the switch.

 

[Monkeyblaine]

Thank you. Marvo when I put a volt meter across line and neutral at a switch which is not closed therefore no current flowing, the voltage is still present at this parallel path. I know voltage is the pressure but when you tap off at certain points of a circuit those Parallel paths are still at 230v to earth regardless of any current flowing so the voltage is taking the parallel path you've created for it.