Article: Circuits

Circuits (Electricity & Energy)

An electric circuit is the complete path of an electric current. The simplest electric circuit is
made up of two components, or parts. The first component is an energy source, such as a battery or generator. The second component is a wire or cable that carries energy from one end of the source. Then it connects back to the source at the other end. Usually a simple circuit has an energy recipient,3 such as a motor or lamp. An energy recipient is connected to the electric circuit by the wire or cable. There are two basic types of electric circuits: series circuits and parallel circuits.

Series Circuit

Series circuits are easy to understand if you think about certain strands of light bulbs linked to
each other. One example is Christmas lights. With some Christmas lights, all of the lights don’t work when one bulb goes out. Why does this happen? This is because in a series circuit the energy has to go through one energy recipient to get to the next. If a bulb blows out, the energy stops at that bulb. It never makes it to the next bulb.

Parallel Circuit

In a parallel circuit, energy is passed through the energy recipients and through a second
connection. As long as there’s an energy source, electricity will always be able to reach each
recipient. If there is a problem with one recipient, the other recipients are not affected.
In practice, most electrical devices have combination circuits. Combination circuits do not use
just one type of circuit. Instead, combination circuits utilize both series and parallel types. Devices that use combination circuits include computers and television sets. More complex circuits often have more electric components like switches and resistors, which limit the electric current flow.