Data Sheet
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30. Pros and Cons of Parallel
Circuits
Build the circuit, turn on the switch (62) and
you will light up the heart LED (69), the lamp
(76) and the alarm (78) at the same time.
The LED (69) and lamp (76) are bright and
the alarm (78) is loud. This demonstrates
the benet of putting all three of these
components in parallel because they all have
their own current paths and thus all operate
well. The down side of parallel circuits is
that more current is being drawn from the
batteries with each component you place in
parallel, so you drain your batteries more
quickly with parallel circuits.
31. Pros and Cons of Series Circuits
Build the circuit, turn on the switch (62) and you will
hear the alarm (78) loudly, but the heart LED (69) and
the star LED (70) will light dimly. Because the heart
LED (69) and star LED (70) are in series, their internal
resistance adds up to limit the current through each of
them. This demonstrates the benets of series circuits
(less current drawn from the battery means longer battery
life) and the downside of series circuits (less current means
that the components may not operate well as they are dim).
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