Individual Circuits

Individual circuits contain 1 consumer and a power supply to supply voltage for the consumer to use.

The individual circuit we built had a 12V power supply, a fuse, a switch and a single bulb.

We hooked up the power supply to the fuse first to prevent voltage spikes from blowing out the bulb. Then the fuse was wired to a switch so I could turn the circuit on and off without removing wires. The switch was wired off to a bulb which went back to ground. (back to the power supply)

We used a voltmeter to measure the available voltage at different points in the circuit.
(available voltage means how much voltage is being supplied when measured after different components)

Positive terminal on the 12v supply = 12v
Terminal before switch = 11.97v
Terminal after switch = 11.97v
Terminal before light bulb = 11.96v
Terminal after light bulb = 0v
Negative terminal on the 12v supply = 0v

The cause in voltage drop between the positive terminal and the terminal before the light bulb could be caused by corosion/bad conection at the postive terminal, fuse and/or switch. (creates a resistance that the electicity has to pass through using some voltage).

The voltage drops completely after the lightbulb because it is the main consumer in the circuit and uses up all of the available voltage.

We measured the amps by putting the multimeter on the amps scale and wiring it up in series.

Total Ohms (resistance) in a component was calculated by using Ohms law. Volts divided by Amps. In the light bulb the total resistance was 35.29 Ohms.

The Wattage used by the light bulb was calculated by using the Power law. Volts times Amps. The Watts used at the light bulb were 4.08 W.

We placed a larger bulb in place of the smaller one. It used the exact same amount of voltage as the smaller bulb (consumers use all the available voltage). There were more amps running through the circuit (0.72 A) because the bulb has less resistance (16.66 Ohms). So this means the Wattage (8.64 W) will be larger because the amperage is greater.