Series resistors

DC circuits · Beginner · about 10 minutes · part of Zen’s Electronics Design Mastery

One loop means one current. The same current flows through every resistor, so the resistances add and the supply voltage splits in proportion to each R.

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How it works

Try it on the bench

1. Select a resistor and change its value. The current changes everywhere in the loop at once.
2. Swap the ammeter to another spot in the loop. It reads the same current.
3. The largest resistor always takes the largest share of the voltage.

Parts on the bench

• Bench power supply
• 3 × Digital multimeter
• 3 × Resistor

In the course

Zen’s Electronics Design Mastery, module “DC Fundamentals”.

More on dc circuits

• Parallel resistors
• Series-parallel network
• Voltage divider
• Current divider
• Wheatstone bridge
• Light sensor (LDR divider)
• Continuity and short-finding