Im not getting this thing about series circuits in relation to parallel circuits...?

Question

OKAY. let's just use light bulbs as our loads.
OK. say we have a circuit with ONE LIGHT BULB. it has a specific brightness.
and if we put another IDENTICAL light bulb parallel to it, it will have equal brightness, and the first bulb will remain the same.

BUT, if we instead placed an IDENTICAL light bulb in series with the first bulb, the first light will become less bright, and the added light bulb will be equally as bight.

What i do not understand is why in that last scenario the first light bulb dims to become equally bright as the added light bulb. I understand that they share the energy equally and therefore are equal in brightness as they're identical, but, how do the electrons know how many lights are following the first to know to share the energy they hold equally? wouldn't the first one take as much energy as it could and the remainder goes to the rest of the light bulbs following?

Do light bulbs have limits in regards to how much voltage they use up to power they're brightness? do they reach a maximum brightness and voltage-use level?

say you have a 6V power supply supplying 6V to every electron that comes back in. the first light in the series circuit has the potential ability to use all 6-Volts from every electron that passes to be at it's peak brightness, but for some reason it doesn't and allows the electrons to give some of the energy to the following light bulbs. WHY?!
ARG! this is so confusing!

is my problem something to do with current or resistance because i seem to base my problem around my logic that:
a current of electrons go around the circuit in a direct path
-start at battery
-go down wire
-found a light bulb, which is increased resistance in this specific section of the circuit,
electrons have voltage taken by bulb
-have no or less voltage left after passing light bulb
-go back to battery to get more voltage and go around again.
but if you throw another bulb into the equation for some reason the electrons decide not to give as much effort at the first bulb coz they somehow know theres another bulb coming up

what concept am i seeing wrong/misunderstanding?

it might also answer my question as to:
"how do the elctrons know to start flowing from the battery once the circuit is closed? how do they know there is now a path from the positive terminal to the negative terminal?"

Answer 1

Review Kirchoff's law regarding circuits.



In any circuit, the total voltage drop across all of the components in that circuit must equal the initial voltage of the battery. The more components that you have in series, the more this total voltage is distributed across each component.



If a parallel circuit exists to the initial circuit, then the total voltage drop in that parallel circuit must also equal the voltage of the battery.



Electrons flow at a constant rate- that is they can never "build up" or "thin out" in any part of the circuit- that would explain why one of the light bulbs cannot be brighter than any other in the series circuit (assuming they are identical).



Lastly, in an open circuit, there is virtually an infinite amount of resistance added between the positive and negative terminal, hence no electron flow. Once the circuit is closed, this infinite amount of resistance is removed allowing for electron flow.

Answer 2

Each light bulb has resistance. If you stack resistors one after another, as in a series the total resistance will be doubled. And the total current cut in half. But in a parellel each light bulb has resistance, but they are not stacked.



So lets say you start with 100 volts. and 1 amp. the first light bult will reduce the total watts by lets say 10%. so now you have .9 amps. a second light bulb will take another 10% of the left over .90. So now you only have .81 amps. And that .81 amps mus power both bulbs. If you keep stacking lights one after another and get down to like .2 amps..each light bulb will only have .2 amps available current. So they will all be dimmer.



But in a paralell, you have 100 volts and 1 amp to each and every lightbulb. The resistance from one deos not effect the others source to the power supply. So each and every lightbulb is free to draw as much as it can. As long as your source can handle it. Of course if your limited on your amps, as in the case of batteries. once you reach that limit they will start to dim no matter what.

Answer 3

electric powered engineers in lots of situations draw a chain of circuit diagrams the place they combine resistors (in sequence or in parallel) to obtain equivalent resistors then repeat the approach until all equivalent resistors are chanced on. This in lots of situations helps cutting-edge to be calculated through a variety of of resistors foremost to calculations of voltage drops. Electrons circulate through wires and resistors like water flows through pipes and valves. If resistors are in sequence the resistances upload as much as a miles better fee. If resistors are in parallel, there are 2 or extra obtainable paths for circulate and the equivalent resistance would be under that for the time of and one branch.

Answer 4

p=u x i

you need voltage and current to have power.



in series you have half the voltage so half the power.