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Activity 112 Investigating Basic Circuits DLBIntroductionWhat

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Activity 1.1.2 Investigating Basic Circuits (DLB)
Introduction
What is an electrical circuit? How can you manipulate components and design a circuit that will do what you want it to? This guided activity will introduce you to some components, tools, and concepts that are fundamental in electronics. It will allow you to investigate and discover:

What are voltage, current, and resistance? How are they related to one another?
What are some of the basic components that make up simple circuits and what do they do?
What are the important characteristics of a circuit and how do I measure different parts of a circuit?
How do I measure voltage in a circuit?
How does the arrangement of components affect the characteristics of the circuit?
How do …show more content…

While the DMM can handle this amount of current, you must learn how to use the ammeter portion of the DMM properly to protect it from blowing a fuse. Shorting voltage sources is dangerous and can damage the DMM.

Part B: Series and Parallel Circuits 9. These two identical 330Ω resistors are in series with each other. There is only one path through the circuit from the power source to the ground. In this diagram, the power source is a 9V battery. One end of the battery has 9V of potential to do work (positive terminal-top). The other end of the battery has zero potential to do work (negative terminal/ground-bottom).
(a) Based on your observations, what would you expect the voltage read if you touched the DMM across both R1 and R2?

(b) Due to the fact that R1 and R2 are identical, what would you guess is the voltage across each resistor is individually? Why?

(c) We can actually replace these two resistors with one resistor that would have the same impact on the circuit. (This theoretical resistor is called an equivalent resistor). What would the value of this equivalent resistor have to be in Ohms (Ω)?

10. Create this series circuit on your breadboard. With both LEDs illuminated, remove one of the LEDs from the circuit path. What happened and why?

11. You can try 3 LEDs in series but none will light up. Why do you think that is?

12. Components in a circuit can also be arranged in parallel.

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