Mission EC8: Parallel Circuits Concepts

Mission EC8 pertains to parallel circuit concepts. A large number of the questions will probe your understanding of how a change in one variable (e.g., the number of resistors, the resistance of a resistor, the battery voltage, etc.) will affect other variables (e.g, the current in a circuit, the current in a resistor, the overall resistance, the voltage drop across a resistor, etc.). The mission consists of 40 questions organized into 10 Question Groups. You must answer one question from each Question Group to complete the mission. The learning outcomes for this mission are ...
 

Learning Outcomes

• The student should be able to identify a parallel circuit if given a circuit diagram, to identify the effect of an increasing number of resistors in parallel upon the equivalent resistance, and to determine the equivalent resistance of a parallel circuit if given individual resistance values.
• The student should be able to identify the effect of varying the number of resistors, varying resistance, and varying battery voltage upon the total circuit current and the bulb brightness of a parallel circuit.
• The student should be able to compare the voltage drop across resistors in a parallel circuit and be able to identify the effect of increasing number of resistors upon the voltage drop across and current through an individual resistor in a parallel circuit.

 

Launch Mission EC8

 

Getting Help

If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial or our Video Tutorial:
 

The Physics Classroom, Circuits Unit, Lesson 4, Part b

The Physics Classroom, Circuits Unit, Lesson 4, Part d

• How can series connections be distinguished from parallel connections?
• How does an increase in the number of parallel-connected resistors effect the overall resistance and the current in the battery?
• How does the current in the resistors of parallel branches compare to each other and to the current outside of the branches?
• What variables would effect the current in a branch of a parallel circuit?
• How can the overall resistance of a parallel circuit be determined from knowledge of the individual resistance values?
• How does the voltage drops across parallel-connected resistors depend upon?

 

Video Tutorials:

Series vs. Parallel Circuits

Parallel Circuit Relationships

 

 

Question-Specific Help

Each Question Group has its own Help page with information specific to the question. You can access the Help page from within the mission by tapping on the Help Me! icon (textbook). For your convenience, links to those pages are provided below: