Mystery Circuits There are two parts to this experiment: Part I: Constructing yo

Question

Mystery Circuits

There are two parts to this experiment:

Part I:  Constructing your own circuits.  In this part, you build your own circuits with one to three light bulbs.  You will study what happens as one or more light bulbs are removed from the circuit.  Your goal is to develop a solid understanding of resistors in series and parallel.

Question:  How do you produce an EMF of 3.0 volts?

Part II:  Deducing the behavior of a mystery circuit.  There will be several "mystery circuits."  Each mystery circuit consists of four or five light bulbs wired together in various configurations.  You must deduce how each mystery circuit is wired.

Question:  To deduce how the bulbs are wired, what information will you use?

Explanation / Answer

If you have a 6 volt battery, connect 2 of the bulbs in series across the battery. The voltage across each bulb will be 3 volts each. However, if you have a 9 volt battery, connect all the bulbs in series across the battery. The voltage across each bulb will again be 3 volts each!

For mystery circuits, you will need to know the current and voltage drop across each bulb. If 2 bulbs have the same voltage drop across them, they must be in parallel. If they have the same current across them, they must be in series. Finally if the sum of voltage drops for any 2 or more is equal to that across another bulb, the entire combination is in parallel with this other bulb.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse M
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.