The day began by talking more about closed circuits and Mason gave the class two set-ups of two circuits each with an on and off switch and these paths were a little more complex than the usual ones he gave us. We were supposed to predict which one of the light bulbs was going to be dimmer and which one was going to be brighter. For the first one we predicted that the light bulb in the top was going to be dimmer because it had a longer path to flow through while the upper light bulb was going to be brighter since it had a smaller path. We also had to predict what would happen to the middle light bulb if the switch was off. We said that the flow of energy was not going in a complete circuit if the switch was off and therefore the light bulb was not going to turn on. For the second set up we had a more complex set-up and we were again supposed to predict which one of the light bulbs was going to be dimmer and which one was going to be brighter if the switch was flipped from off to on. We agreed that the upper light bulb had to be brighter because another flow of electricity was going through that bulb and the lower bulb would have the same amount of light because the path would remain the same.
Using our previous knowledge we then made a chart on how the light bulbs were going to act if they were set up in parallel or series and we agreed that putting light bulbs in series result in the light bulbs being dim, where setting them up in parallel results in the opposite whereas setting the batteries in parallel results in dimmer batteries where setting the batteries up in parallel does the opposite. We also moved on to the topic of resistors and we talked about how to calculate the resistance by looking at the color scheme of each of the capacitors. Our results are shown in the table below.
We then used a multimeter in order to get the exact resistance of each of the resistors using a DC circuit. The multimeter is shown below.
The results from each of our finding is in the upper right hand corner of the picture and it shows that resistors in parallel decreases in value whereas resistors in series increase in value. The relationship as a result is total resistance in a series is the sum of all the resistors while the inverse of total resistance is the sum of all the inverses of the resistors.
The relationship explained previously is put into effect into the problem below. It shows a variety of resistors and we were supposed to solve the total resistance found in the whole system. By using these rules, we came to a value of 100 Ohms.
The day ended by talking about Kirchhoff's Rules which talked about how to find the current, voltage and work of the system. The whole process of how to use these rules involved tracing one flow of current through one loop and tracing another flow of current through another loop. Then using the other rules from before knowing that the current is the same in a series and that the sum of the current in each of the loops is the same as the total current in the whole system one can combine all the equations to solve for multiple unknowns.
Overall, we learned about current through a DC circuit as well as resistors and how resistors in a series and parallel add up. Finally, and probably the most important part of the class, involved Kirchhoff's Rules and how they are used to solve for multiple things in a closed circuit.
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