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The very fundamental start to any part of electronics is to understand what we mean by an ‘Electronic Circuit’.
Very simply put, if I was to ask you to do a circuit of your living room what would you do? You’d walk around it and end up back where you started.In Electronic terms a circuit means that electricity can flow all around it, out of it’s power source, between all of the components and back to its power source.
Look at the diagrams in Fig 1 and see if you can work out which is the correct circuit.
Very simply put, if I was to ask you to do a circuit of your living room what would you do? You’d walk around it and end up back where you started.In Electronic terms a circuit means that electricity can flow all around it, out of it’s power source, between all of the components and back to its power source.
Look at the diagrams in Fig 1 and see if you can work out which is the correct circuit.
It is also worth noting that in any circuit, the electricity will always take the path of least resistance. For example, using my living room analogy, if you were walking around and wished to get to the television quicker, you cut across the middle of the carpet. If however the coffee table was in the way, you would still have to walk around, in either way you would take the path of least resistance.
Electricity is the same – sometimes we have to force the electricity to take the path we want by using different components such as ‘resistors’ with different values.Look at Fig 2.
Electricity is the same – sometimes we have to force the electricity to take the path we want by using different components such as ‘resistors’ with different values.Look at Fig 2.
Here I have given the electricity an easy (or shorter) path to take, therefore the electricity will take the easier route to complete its path as the wire has much less resistance than the resistor and therefore not light the LED. In this example the circuit can be said to be ‘shorting out’ or a ‘short circuit’.
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