Introduction:

There are two types of electrical circuit namely, the parallel circuit and the series circuit. Series circuits
are connected one after the other, so that the same current flows through both of them, a circuit is in
parallel when they are in alternate branches of a circuit. Series circuit and Parallel circuits differs in
terms of functionality. In a Series circuit, one example of which is the Christmas lights in series, once a
lamp burns out, the whole string of lamps goes off as well. While in parallel circuits when a light bulb
burns out in your house, other lights stays on. The goal in this experiment is to study circuits made up of
two resistors in series or parallel.

Methodology:

In this experiment, the materials used was LJ circuit board, Power Supply Unit ( PSU), Analog
Multimeter, Digital Multimeter, 10pcs. of connecting wires and 3 pcs of resistors (220Ω ,470Ω, 1000Ω).

Part A. Individual Resistors

The students filled in the Data table 1 which is the resistance value and uncertainty of each resistor, the
resistors were tested in an ascending order R1 represents the smallest resistance while R3 has the
highest resistance. In getting the Voltage and the Current AMM was used as a voltmeter and DMM was
used as an ammeter. The circuit diagram was made similar in Figure 3.
After following the set up in figure number three, the students continued to increase the voltage slowly
until the students reached the exact amount of voltage and current measurements for 2V, 3V, 4V and
5V. This procedure was repeated in the following resistors 2 and 3.

Part B. Series Combination

The students connected three resistors in series on the circuit board as shown in Figure 1. Then, the
students initially set the PSU at 9V and placed the PSU in series with the resistors.

Vsource was obtained by connecting the DMM(voltmeter) across or in parallel with the PSU.
Afterwards, the DMM was set to ammeter mode as shown in Figure 5.

After doing this, the value of the ammeter was recorded as Itotal , to obtain the value of I1, I2 and I3 the
position of the ammeter was moved “before” the first resistor as shown in figure 5.

In order to obtain V1,V2,V3 and Vtotal the DMM was removed from the circuit and was adjusted to its
voltmeter mode. Then, the voltage drop across each and across all resistors as a group was measured
and recorded as V1,V2,V3 and Vtotal.
Part B. Parallel Combination

A parallel circuit was set up as seen in Figure 6 with the ammeter and voltmeter connected, the students
measured the voltage o the source by connecting a voltmeter across the PSU, the gathered value was
recorded as Vsource in Data Table 3.

By moving the voltmeter across each resistor V1,V2 and V3 was measured. The students then removed
the DMM and set it up to its ammeter mode. The ammeter was inserted as shown in Figure 7, the
measured value was defined as Itotal. After determining the value of Itotal the ammeter was moved to the
designated points in the circuit to measure I1,I2 and I3. After obtaining all the needed values, the values
were compared by finding the per cent deviation.

Source(s):

Exp 6: Series and Parallel Circuits