Individual Circuits

Sorry if my writing is a little up and down, sadly i write the way i speak, its easier to think that way.

First off a Circuit is a Pathway, an electrical pathway if you will.

An individual circuit is a basic pathway containing a Battery (Power source) a switch (to break and connect the circuit at your will), a consumer (bulb or something close to the liking) and a Fuse (to protect the circuit from short circuiting by breaking the pathway when overloaded. The fuse "blowing out".)

I tinkered with this circuit as my first little project for class. i enjoyed messing around with this circuit, brought back memories when i was a kid (but that's me speaking my mind again).

Any who, i placed all the necessary connections together, Power pack (after using a multi-meter to adjust the correct voltage of 12V), fuse, 1 bulb, wiring and the switch, positive connected to positive red and negative black, grounded...flick of the switch and shazam, let there be light!

After my little shine of success (excuse the pun) i was then required to use a Multi-meter to measure the available voltage and voltage drop of the electrical components.

I measured the voltage of the power supply (B+) :12V
Terminal before the switch: 11.97V
Terminal after the switch: 11.97V
Terminal before the bulb: 11.96V
Terminal after the bulb: 0V
The negative on the 12V power supply (N-): 0V

From the results shown i learned that as the voltage passed through the circuit, a little bit of voltage was used along the way towards the bulb. The rest of the available voltage passed through the bulb lighting it and then there was 0V back to the ground.

The voltage drop was the next part to measure.
From B+ of the 12V supply to the input of the switch: 0.02V
From the input of the switch to the output of the switch: 0V
From the output of the switch to the input of the bulb: 0V
From the input to the bulb to the output of the bulb: 11.96V
From the to the bulb to the output of the bulb: 0V


From the results shown here the voltage has passed through all the components and the voltage has dropped a little from passing through the wires and the rest of the available voltage has passed into the bulb lighting it up and going back to ground.


After that, the resistance was the second to last part to measure.
Measuring the amperage, by setting the multi meter to Amps i was able to measure the amperage of the circuit.
Wire before the bulb: 0.34I (amps)


Using Ohm's law i calculated the resistance: Volts divide by Amps = Resistance
                                                                  12/0.34=35.29 Ohm's


And lastly the Watts and/or Power of the bulb.
By measuring the Amperage and Volts of the circuit i was able to calculate the Watts by using 'Power Law'.

Volts x Amps = Watts
12V x 34=4.08W

After the end of the first lesson i had learned all of these things, using a multi meter, what it does, creating a individual circuit, etc.