Grade 11Electric Current

Why does potential difference remains same in parallel and changes in series combination?????

Shrey

12 Years agoGrade 11

1 Answer

Rinkoo Gupta

Approved Tutor Answer12 Years ago

Just draw a sketch of two resistors in series then draw another showing the two resistors in parallel and it should be clear why. In the parallel circuit, the same voltage is appears across BOTH resistors. Remove each resistor, one at a time, and you can see that the same voltage appears across both of them.

In the series circuit, the same CURRENT flows through each resistor. If the resistors have different values then, from Ohm's law, the voltage across them will be
Volts = Current * Resistance
Vs = IR1 + IR2
where Vs = supply voltage , and these will be different for each resistor, unless the two resistors are the same value. These voltage drops across each resistor must add up to the supply voltage.

Thanks & Regards

Rinkoo Gupta

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