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Monday, November 30, 2020

Ranking the Brightness of light bulbs, in basic resistor circuit

 This was a collaborative problem for the seniors. They had a network of 13 resistors, which represented identical light bulbs, and had to determine the currents through each one and rank the bulbs from brightest to dimmest. But how can you find the relative fractions of the total current in each bulb? 

This video shows how to think it through, using our usual 5 rules for resistor circuits: how to do series and parallel resistances; Ohm's law, V = IR; and Kirchhoff's two rules: In series voltages of the resistors add to the battery's voltage, and in parallel the currents in the branches add to the total current. 

We use each of these rules to figure this out. If you can understand this, then you likely have a really good conceptual understanding of resistor circuits!! 



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