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It has been emphasized throughout the Circuits unit of The Physics Classroom
tutorial that whatever voltage boost is acquired by a charge in the battery is lost
by the charge as it passes through the resistors of the external circuit. The total
voltage drop in the external circuit is equal to the gain in voltage as a charge
passes through the internal circuit. In a parallel circuit, a charge does not pass
through every resistor; rather, it passes through a single resistor. Thus, the
entire voltage drop across that resistor must match the battery voltage. It
matters not whether the charge passes through resistor 1, resistor 2, or resistor
3, the voltage drop across the resistor that it chooses to pass through must
equal the voltage of the battery. Put in equation form, this principle would be
expressed as
Vbattery = V1 = V2 = V3 = ...
If three resistors are placed in parallel branches and powered by a 12-volt
battery, then the voltage drop across each one of the three resistors is 12 volts.
A charge flowing through the circuit would only encounter one of these three
resistors and thus encounter a single voltage drop of 12 volts.
Electric potential diagrams were introduced in Lesson 1 of this unit and
subsequently used to illustrate the consecutive voltage drops occurring in series
circuits. An electric potential diagram is a conceptual tool for representing the
electric potential difference between several points on an electric circuit.
Consider the circuit diagram below and its corresponding electric potential
diagram.
The analysis begins by using the resistance values for the individual resistors in
order to determine the equivalent resistance of the circuit.
1 / Req = 1 / R1 + 1 / R2 + 1 / R3 = (1 / 17 ) + (1 / 12 ) + (1 / 11 )
1 / Req = 0.23306 -1
Req = 1 / (0.23306 -1)
Req = 4.29
(rounded from 4.29063 )
Now that the equivalent resistance is known, the current in the battery can be
determined using the Ohm's law equation. In using the Ohm's law equation (V
= I R) to determine the current in the battery, it is important to use the battery
voltage for V and the equivalent resistance for R. The calculation is shown
here:
Itot = Vbattery / Req = (60 V) / (4.29063 )
Itot = 14.0 amp
(rounded from 13.98396 amp)
The 60 V battery voltage represents the gain in electric potential by a charge as
it passes through the battery. The charge loses this same amount of electric
potential for any given pass through the external circuit. That is, the voltage
drop across each one of the three resistors is the same as the voltage gained in
the battery:
V battery = V1 = V2 = V3 = 60 V
There are three values left to be determined - the current in each of the
individual resistors. Ohm's law is used once more to determine the current values
for each resistor - it is simply the voltage drop across each resistor (60 Volts)
divided by the resistance of each resistor (given in the problem statement). The
calculations are shown below.
I1 = V1 / R1
I1 = (60 V) / (17 )
I2 = V 2 / R2
I2 = (60 V) / (12 )
I3 = V 3 / R3
I3 = (60 V) / (11 )
I1 = 3.53 amp
I2 = 5.00 amp
I3 = 5.45 amp
The mathematical analysis of this parallel circuit involved a blend of concepts and
equations. As is often the case in physics, the divorcing of concepts from
equations when embarking on the solution to a physics problem is a dangerous
act. Here, one must consider the concepts that the voltage drops across each
one of the three resistors is equal to the battery voltage and that the sum of the
current in each resistor is equal to the total current. These understandings are
essential in order to complete the mathematical analysis. In the next part of
Lesson 4, combination or compound circuits in which some devices are in parallel
and others are in series will be investigated.