Color-coded circuits predicting where voltage drops occur

Setups
Circuit 1

Circuit 2
Circuit 3

Circuit 1 to Circuit 2 Conversion

Circuit 1 to Circuit 3 Conversion

Circuit 2 to Circuit 4 Conversion

Brightest Circuit

Dimmest Circuit
Week 1
1. To ensure that the circuits are hooked up correctly, the resistances between the lightbulbs,
the current in the circuit, and the voltage drops between lightbulbs are measured using the
DMM. When the circuit is on, the internal resistance of the lightbulb should be measured
at 0 ohms. Since lightbulbs have resistive components, I expect the voltage to drop after
each bulb. The current of the circuit should also be decreasing for every lightbulb that is
added in series.
2. (a) Since Circuit 4 is a combination of parallel and series, I expect the voltage drop to
decrease as it goes through the lightbulbs in series and remain the same as it goes through
the lightbulbs in parallel.

Week 2
Predictions
1. a. The current through wire A and wire B should be the same because the circuit is in a
series configuration.
2. a. (a) The brightness of the bulbs should be dimmer.
(b) The current through wire A should drop because more lightbulbs are in the circuit,
therefore there’s more resistance.
3. a. (a) The brightness in bulb 1 for circuit 3 should be about the same brightness as the
bulb 1 in circuit 1 because the bulbs are in parallel.
(b) The current in wire A for circuit should be the same as the current in wire 1.
(c) The current through wire B should be double that of wire A because according to
Kirchoff’s Junction Law, the amount of current going into the two wires should be equal
to the current coming out of both wires.
4. a. (a) The current through wire A for circuit 4 should be slightly larger than the current
for circuit 2 because a portion of the circuit is in parallel thus dropping the resistance a
bit.
(b) The brightness of bulb 1 in circuit should be slightly brighter than that of circuit 2
because of the slight increase in current.
(c) The brightness of bulb 2 should be dimmer than circuit 2’s bulb 2 because the current
gets split at the junction along with the added resistance.
5. a. Placing the lightbulbs in parallel for our circuit produces as much light as possible
because when the lightbulbs are in that configuration the resistance decreases.
6. a. Placing the lightbulbs in series for this circuit produces as little light as possible
because when the lightbulbs are in that configuration the resistance increases.
7. a. The brightest circuit has the most current flowing through the battery because the
resistance is minimized due to all lightbulbs being in a parallel configuration.
b. The dimmest circuit has the least current flowing through the battery because the
resistance is maximized due to all lightbulbs being arranged in series.