To determine the characteristics of electric circuits when light bulbs are connected in series and parallel?

Question

i want to know the different characters when lightbulbs are connected in series when using ONLY light bulbs, wires and batteries and the same with parallel.

Answer 1

When light bulbs are connected in parallel, the voltage across them remains constant, say like 12V. The current is the same in each light bulb. When light bulbs are connected in series the current in the light bulbs is the same, and the voltage across them differs. Look up Ohm's Law: I * R = V, V/R=I.

When the light bulbs are in series the resistance adds up for each light bulb, like 10 ohms + 12 ohms + 15 ohms = 37 ohms. When in parallel, you calculate total resistance using this formula: R = 1 / (1/Rbulb1 + 1/Rbulb2 ... + 1/Rbulbn), where n is the last light bulb. Once you have resistance you can get current using Ohm's Law (since you know voltage).

There is not much more to it than that.

Answer 2

All the light bulbs in your home are in parallel.

If a bulb is 230 volts [or 120 in the USA] you need to connect them all in parallel in order to make sure they are all at the correct voltage.

ALL bulbs in parallel are at the mains voltage.

If one bulbs goes the rest stay on.

The only time you connect bulbs in series is for Christmas tree lights which are lots of little low voltage lights.

You connect 10 volt lights in series then 12 of them go across the 120 volt mains or 23 go across the 230 volt mains

Therefore lights in series share the voltage. ie. 10 bulbs in series on 100 volts all get 10 volts each.

The main problem with series connection is that if one bulb goes they all go off and you don't know which one has blown.