1. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Smasher here. Slippery and I will help you explore wiring parallel circuits. 1 Smasher Slippery

2. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Safety Practice Working with electricity can be fun. To keep it fun, we will continue to use the safety practices we learned in the first section. In this section we are going to be working with parallel circuits. 2

3. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Parallel Circuits A circuit composed solely of components connected in parallel is known as a parallel circuit. 3

4. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Parallel Circuits Hi, Slippery again. Remember our simple circuit? By connecting another light bulb or other component in parallel, our simple circuit becomes a parallel circuit. 4 -- +

5. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Parallel Circuits A parallel circuit exists when all the components are connected so that the positive lead and the negative lead of the power source have a direct path to each light bulb. 5 -- +

6. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Parallel Circuits Notice that the positive (+) side of the power source touches all the light bulbs on one side and the negative(-) side of the battery touches the other side of all the light bulbs. So when the switch is closed, all the bulbs light with equal pressure (voltage). This is why the light bulbs in this circuit burn brighter. 6 -- +

7. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Parallel Circuits Unlike the series circuit, if a light bulb burns out, the other light bulbs will still illuminate. This is the result of each of the loads having an electrical path to the power source. 7 -- +

8. Dr. Gary Stewardson, Raymond Boyles Laboratory Activity Now that we understand parallel circuits let’s complete Activity 7. 8