Series circuit Flashcards
What is a series circuit ?
The different components are connected in a line, end to end, between the +ve and the -ve of the power supply,
2) If you remove or disconnect one component, the circuit is broken and they all stop. This is generally not very handy, and in practice very few things are connected in series
3) You can use the following rules to design series circuits to measure quantities and test components
In series circuit, pd is shared
total pd of the supply is shared between the various components. So the PD round a series circuit always adds up to equal the sourced PD
v total = v1 + v2
Current is the same everywhere
The same current flows through all components
Size of current is determined by the total pd of the cells and the total resistance of the circuit e.g. I=V/R
resistance adds up
Their total combined resistance is equal
to the sum of the two individual
resistances.
This is because adding a resistor in series, the 2 resistor have to share the total pd.
PD across each resistor is lower, so the current through each resistor is also lower. In a series circuit, the current is the same everywhere so the total current in the circuit is reduced when a resistor is added. This means the total resistance of the circuit increases.
The bigger a component’s resistance, the bigger its share of the total PD
