Name: ______________________________________ Date: ________________________

Student Exploration: Circuits

Vocabulary: ammeter, circuit, current, electron, ohmmeter, Ohm’s law, parallel circuit,
resistance, resistor, series circuit, voltage

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

Strings of holiday lights can be designed in one of two ways. In some strings of lights, each light
is connected to the others along a single wire (in series). In others, each light is attached to its
own wire (in parallel).

1. Suppose a single light bulb burns out. How do you think this will affect lights that are strung

along a single wire? It would cause the other light to burn out or turn off as well.

2. How will a single burned-out bulb affect the string of lights if each light is attached to its own

wire? If there a string of lights where each light is given its own wire, the single

burned-out bulb will not affect any of them.

Gizmo Warm-up
The Circuits Gizmo shows a circuit board and a variety of
components. Create a circuit with a battery, a light switch, a wire,
and a light bulb, as shown. (Click the light switch to turn it to OFF.)

1. Click the light switch to turn it to ON. What happens? It turns on

the light.

2. Turn on Show current and select Electron flow. The moving dots represent a current of
electrons—tiny, negatively charged particles—moving through the wire. Voltage is a
measure of how much more potential energy an electron at one end of a battery has than an
electron at the other end of the battery.

A. How does changing the battery’s voltage affect the current? Increasing the voltage
will increase the amps in the current while decreasing the voltage will
decrease the amps in the current.
B. How does changing the battery’s voltage affect the brightness of the light?
Increasing the voltage will increase the brightness of the light while
decreasing the voltage will decrease the brightness of the light.

3. Remove the wire. What happens? The current is cut off and the light stops working.

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 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A:  Click Clear. Create the circuit shown at right.
(Use the 10-ohm resistor.)
Ohm’s law
 Click on the battery. Set the Selected battery
voltage to 10 volts.

Introduction: Resistors are devices that slow the flow of current in a wire. The resistance of
the circuit to current is measured in units called ohms.

Question: What is the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance?

1. Form hypothesis: How do you think increasing the resistance in a circuit will affect the

current in the wire? Increasing the resistance in a circuit will affect the current in the

wire by decreasing it.

2. Observe: Turn the light switch On to start the flow of current. An ammeter is a device that
measures current in Amperes (A). Drag the Ammeter ( ) to various parts of the circuit.

A. Is the current the same throughout, or does it change? It is the same throughout

B. What is the current in the wire now? It is 1.00 amps

3. Collect data: Measure the current in the circuit using the resistor and voltage combinations
given below.

Voltage Resistance Current

10 volts 10 ohms 1.00 A
20 volts 10 ohms 2.00 A
30 volts 10 ohms 3.00 A

Voltage Resistance Current

50 volts 20 ohms 2.50 A
50 volts 100 ohms 0.50 A
50 volts 200 ohms 0.05 A

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4. Analyze: What is the mathematical relationship between voltage (V), resistance (R), and

current (I)? Express your answer as an equation: V=IR

This equation is known as Ohm’s law.

5. Test: Test your equation with other combinations of voltage and resistance. Modify the
equation if necessary.
Other forms could be I=V/R and R=V/I

6. Apply: The light bulb is also a resistor. Place the light bulb in the circuit, then use Ohm’s

law to find the resistance of the light bulb. What is it? It is 15 ohms

Get the Gizmo ready:

Activity B:  Click Clear.
 Create a circuit as shown.
Series circuits
 Click the battery to select it. Set the
Selected battery voltage to 10 volts.

Question: In a series circuit, there is only one path for charge to flow. What are the
properties of series circuits?

1. Observe: Turn the light switch ON and observe the light bulb. Then start replacing the wire
segments with new light bulbs.

A. How does each new light bulb affect the others? It affects them by decreasing
their brightness since they are all using the same battery.

B. Use the Ammeter to measure the current in various parts of the circuit. Is the current

the same throughout, or does it change? It is the same throughout.

2. Form hypothesis: How do you think the total resistance of a series circuit is calculated?

The total resistance of a series circuit is calculated by combining all individual

resistor values.

3. Experiment: Create a series circuit with a 10-volt battery and

four 10-ohm resistors, as shown. Measure the current.

A. Based on the voltage and current, what is the resistance

of the circuit? (Hint: Use Ohm’s law.) R=40 ohms

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 B. Ohmmeters measure resistance. Remove the battery and attach the terminals of the
Ohmmeter ( ) to the ends of the circuit, where the battery used to be attached.

What is the resistance? 40.00 ohms

4. Make a rule: How do you calculate the total resistance of a series circuit? By combining all
individual resistor values from around the series circuit.
Test your rule using the Gizmo. If necessary, modify your rule.

5. Extend your thinking: Replace the battery. Turn on Show current, and remove one resistor.
Why would it be a problem if your household appliances were connected in a series circuit?

It would not work well and would be inefficient because not all household appliances
need the same amount of voltage to work, and it would cause problems.

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 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity C:  Click Clear.
 Create a circuit as shown.
Parallel circuits
 Click the battery to select it. Set the
Selected battery voltage to 15 volts.

Question: In a parallel circuit, there is more than one path along which charges can flow.
What are the properties of parallel circuits?

1. Observe: Turn the light switch ON and observe the light bulb. Then add two more light bulbs
to the circuit, parallel to the first two.

A. How does each new light bulb affect the others? It doesn’t affect them in any way.

B. Use the Ammeter to measure the current in various parts of the circuit. Is the current

the same throughout, or does it change? Explain: It changes because the series

circuit has one battery lighting 4 light bulbs however their voltage doesn’t

change because they are parallel.

2. Form hypothesis: How do you think the total resistance of a parallel circuit is calculated?

The total resistance of a parallel circuit is calculated by combining the total current
from each side which would give us the total current, we would be able to use Ohm’s
law R = V/I to find the total resistance.

3. Experiment: With the battery voltage set to 15 volts, measure the current in a parallel circuit
with 1, 2, 3, and 4 light bulbs. (In each case, place the ammeter next to the battery.) Use
Ohm’s law to calculate the total resistance of the circuit. Record results below.

Number of light bulbs 1 2 3 4

Voltage 15 volts 15 volts 15 volts 15 volts
Current 2 amps 4 amps 10 amps 8 amps
Total resistance 0.01 ohms 0.02 ohms 0.03 ohms 0.04 ohms

4. Make a rule: How would you find the resistance of a parallel circuit with n identical resistors?

Since the resistors are identical and parallel, we would find the resistance of N identical
resistors by calculating the resistance of one resistor and dividing it by N which is the
number of resistors.

5. Apply: What will be the total resistance and current in a parallel circuit with a 15-volt battery
and three 10-ohm resistors? Test your answers with the Gizmo.

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 Total resistance: 0.03 ohms Current: 10 amps

(Activity C continued on next page)

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Activity C (continued from previous page)

6. Extend your thinking: Household appliances are usually connected in a parallel circuit. Why
do you think it might be a problem if too many appliances are turned on at once? (Hint:
current in a wire also produces heat.)

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7. Calculate: Determining the total resistance of a parallel circuit when there is a variety of
resistors is more complex.
 The total current in the circuit (I) is equal to the sum of currents in each branch:

 Ohm’s law (V = IR) can be rewritten as I = V / R. Substituting this expression into the
equation above:

 (Note: Since each branch of the circuit might have a different resistance, we write R1,
R2, and so forth. But the voltage is the same across each branch, so V is used for
each term.)
 Divide each side of the equation by V, and you get an expression for the total
resistance of the circuit:

8. Practice: Determine the total resistance of each of the following parallel circuits. Then use
the Gizmo to check your answer. (You can calculate the total resistance from the current
and voltage using Ohm’s law, or use the Ohmmeter to measure the resistance directly.)

A. A parallel circuit with a 20-ohm resistor and a 10-ohm resistor. _________

B. A parallel circuit with two 20-ohm resistors and a 10-ohm resistor. _________

C. A parallel circuit with a 15-ohm light bulb and a 20-ohm resistor. _________

D. A parallel circuit with two 100-ohm resistors and a 20-ohm resistor. _________

E. A parallel circuit with a 10-ohm, 20-ohm, 100-ohm and 200-ohm resistor. _________

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