Are Christmas Lights in Series or Parallel? Christmas lights. Rhett Allain Why don’t your Christmas lights work? Sadly, in the event of a string of lights going out on your tree, replacing the strand is usually the best option. It’s pretty difficult to find that one bulb that’s causing the problem. However, this is a great time to look at the difference between series and parallel circuits. A Simple Circuit Just about the simplest circuit you can create uses just one battery and one light bulb. In order to get the bulb to glow, you need a complete circuit. A simple circuit with a battery and bulb. When current passes through the filament, it makes the filament get super hot. If you take away any one of the parts for the complete circuit, there would be no current and no glowing bulb. Light Bulbs in Series Now you want to connect two light bulbs to battery. A circuit with two lightbulbs connected in series.
In this case, there is just one path for the current to follow. Light Bulbs in Parallel A circuit with two lightbulbs in parallel. 1. Electric Circuits. Kids Corner. Technology | Learn about Current Electricity. Electricity Concepts - All About Circuits. It was discovered centuries ago that certain types of materials would mysteriously attract one another after being rubbed together. For example: after rubbing a piece of silk against a piece of glass, the silk and glass would tend to stick together.
Indeed, there was an attractive force that could be demonstrated even when the two materials were separated: Glass and silk aren't the only materials known to behave like this. Anyone who has ever brushed up against a latex balloon only to find that it tries to stick to them has experienced this same phenomenon. Paraffin wax and wool cloth are another pair of materials early experimenters recognized as manifesting attractive forces after being rubbed together: This phenomenon became even more interesting when it was discovered that identical materials, after having been rubbed with their respective cloths, always repelled each other: More attention was directed toward the pieces of cloth used to do the rubbing.
Learning Circuits. Electricity YouTube Playlist. Electric Current & Voltage Info. How Circuits Work" Have you ever wondered what happens when you flip a switch to turn on a light, TV, vacuum cleaner or computer? What does flipping that switch accomplish? In all of these cases, you are completing an electric circuit, allowing a current, or flow of electrons, through the wires. An electric circuit is in many ways similar to your circulatory system. Your blood vessels, arteries, veins and capillaries are like the wires in a circuit. The blood vessels carry the flow of blood through your body. The wires in a circuit carry the electric current to various parts of an electrical or electronic system. Your heart is the pump that drives the blood circulation in the body.
Take the simple case of an electric light. The diagram above shows a simple circuit of a flashlight with a battery at one end and a flashlight bulb at the other end. Circuits can be huge power systems transmitting megawatts of power over a thousand miles -- or tiny microelectronic chips containing millions of transistors. Learn about Current Electricity.
Electricity Interactive Games and Activities - Woodlands Science Zone. Electricity & Magnetism: Introduction. Electricity is related to charges, and both electrons and protons carry a charge. The amount of the charge is the same for each particle, but opposite in sign. Electrons carry a negative charge while protons carry positive charge. The objects around us contain billions and billions of atoms, and each atom contains many protons and electrons. The protons are located in the center of the atom, concentrated in a small area called the nucleus.
The electrons are in motion outside of the nucleus in orbitals. The protons are basically trapped inside the nucleus and can't escape the nucleus. There aren't a lot of places that you can see electricity. It's easy to see the uses of electricity around you. Or search the sites for a specific topic. Electricity and Magnetism (NASAConnect Video)