NATIONAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Higher School of Chemical Engineering and Extractive Industries

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Laboratory

Practice 4

Series, parallel and series-parallel circuit

Team 2

Group: 2IM30

Team members:
 THEORETICAL INTRODUCTION

Electrical circuit

Interconnection of two or more components that

contains a closed path.

Series circuit Parallel circuit Mixed circuit

They are characterized by They are characterized by They are circuits that mix
having the resistors having several paths resistors connected in
connected in the same line connected in parallel to each series and parallel. That is,
between the ends of the other, in such a way that inside one of the parallel
battery or cell, that is, each path has a resistance paths, we can find a mini
located one after the other. and these paths are series circuit.
Therefore, current flows connected by common
through each resistor one points.
after the other.

Source: https://fisica.laguia2000.com/general/circuitos-en-serie-y-en-paralelo
 I. SERIES CIRCUITS

1. From the circuit in figure 1:

a) Calculate the total resistance:

R 1=1.25 Kohms

R 2=5.93 Kohms

R 3=3.3 Kohms

R 4=4.2 Kohms

The resistances are added because it is a series circuit:

Therefore, the RT =14.68 Kohms

b) Calculate the total current:

VT 15.7 V −3
¿= = =1.0695 x 10 A
RT 14.68 x 10 3 Ω

Therefore, the ¿=1.0695 mA

And the ITmedida=1.1 mA

Error percentage:

1.0695−1.1
%E= x 100=2.8518 %
1.0695

2. Build the circuit. Adjust the power supply until you get a reading of 15V on
the voltmeter, placing it between the AF points.

3. Measure the voltage across each resistor:

The sum of the voltages across each resistor

a) V R 1=1.37 V equals 15.28 Volts circulating in the circuit.
 b) V R 2=6.52 V

c) V R 3=3.07 V

d) V R 4=4.62 V

Percentage error of theoretical Total Voltage and experimental Total Voltage:

15.28−15.7
%E= x 100=2.7487 %
15.28

4. Measure the current at points A, B, C, D and E, indicated in the circuit. (Do

not forget that to measure current you must insert the Ammeter into the
circuit. (Note correct polarity).

a) I A=1.1 mA

b) I B=1.1mA

c) I C =1.1 mA

d) I D =1.1 mA

e) I E =1.1 mA

Return your power source to 0 Volts.

f) How is the current for any point in the circuit with respect to the total current?

A= It is the same since it is a series circuit.

g) How is the voltage across each of the resistors relative to the total voltage?

A= It is different, since it is a series circuit. This is verified by using a multimeter.

h) Add the voltage across each resistor and compare it to the total voltage
measured at point 3. Are they the same? Please explain.

R= The voltage in a series circuit is different in each of the resistors, that is, the
voltage is shared and therefore its value is divided at each point. So it is added to
know the total voltage that is circulating through the circuit. The calculated total
voltage had a value close to the measured total voltage, since the resistors are not
always the exact value they should have, it varies. So when the corresponding
calculations were made, there was an error. But if the experiment had been carried
out with better precision, the VT and the VTM would have to be equal.

5.- Add a 1KOhm resistor (R5) to the circuit, as shown in Figure 2, perform the
following calculations:
Exp. Exp. Exp.
resistance voltag intensity
(K Ohm) e (V) (mA)

I=V/R

R1=0.977 1 1.0235

R2=4.61 5.5 1.1930

R3=2.15 2.5 1.1628

R4=3.24 3.9 1.2037

R5=0.977 1 1.0235

a) The total resistance of the circuit

RT= 11.95 KOhm

 b) The total current of the circuit

IT=VT/RT

IT=15/11.95

IT=1.2552mA

6.- Measure the voltage across each resistor

Voltage (V)

R1=
1VR2=5.
5VR3=2.
5VR4=3.
9VR5=1V

7.- Measure the current at points A, B, C, D, E and F of the circuit

a) IA= 1.25 mAb

) IB= 1.02 mAc
) IC= 1.19 mAd
) ID= 1.16 mAe
) IE= 1.2 mAf
) IF= 1.02 mA

8.- Answer the following questions

a) How is the current for any point in the circuit with respect to the total current?

It is very similar, since theoretically in a series circuit the current is the same.

b) How is the voltage across each of the resistors relative to the total voltage?

It is different because by having a series circuit the voltage is divided in each

resistor, causing the voltage to decrease as each resistor passes through.

c) Add the voltage across each of the resistors, and compare it to the total voltage
measured. Are they the same?

The total voltage added is 13.9V and the measured voltage is 15V. It varies a little
since the resistor values are not exact.

d) Was the behavior of the current and voltage for both circuits the same? Write
the general rule of these behaviors
The behavior was the same

-For the current: In a series circuit it is the same current.

-For voltage: In a series circuit the voltage decreases as the current passes
through each resistor.

e) Express these characteristics in mathematical form

- For current = I = V / R (A)

-For voltage= V=IR (V)

f) Comparing the results of both circuits, state what happened with

-Total resistance: By adding a new resistance to the series circuit, the total
resistance increases-The
total current measured: The current decreased as the total resistance of the circuit
increased-The
voltage across each resistor: The voltage across each resistor decreases by
adding a new resistance since it also divides the total voltage.

g) What happens in the series circuit when one of the resistors is short-circuited?

-The total impedance decreases.

h) What happens in the series circuit when one of the resistors opens?

-The entire circuit simply opens, stopping it from working completely.

i) List 3 applications of series circuits and justify their use.

-Voltage dividers. Resistors are placed in series to divide the voltage to electronic
power devices that require different voltage levels. The taps (the points within the
series resistor network that have different voltage levels) are then connected to
other electronic components, such as voltage regulators, which can be used to
produce a constant voltage equal to the tap voltage.

-Battery voltage. Battery voltage increases when batteries are placed in series.
When batteries are connected in series, the batteries do not need to have the
same voltage, but they must have the same amp-hour capacity. Ampere-hour
capacity is a measure of how long a battery can supply a specific level of electrical
current. For example, a 20 amp-hour battery can supply 20 amps for one hour or
five amps for four hours.
-Light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Light-emitting diodes (better known by their acronym
in English, LED) are electronic components that emit light when voltage is applied
to them. They can be arranged in parallel or in series. One advantage of arranging
LEDs in parallel is that when one LED fails, the rest will continue to light. In a
series arrangement, when one LED fails, the rest will not light. However, LEDs
arranged in series require less electrical current to operate than those arranged in
parallel.

j) What is polarity?

- Property of the terminals (poles) of a battery or cell, which can be positive or

negative. The electric current flows from the cathode (negative pole) to the anode
(positive pole), generating a flow that allows the operation of various devices
through electrical energy.

k) What is the purpose of knowing the polarity of a resistor?

- Resistors have no polarity, that is, they can be connected on one side or the
other, which is irrelevant (unlike a diode). Resistance only limits the flow of current
through a conductor without the direction of the current being relevant. Whether in
one direction or the other, the current will take on different values depending on the
value of the resistance installed.

l) What is the earth?

-Grounding is an installation of green-yellow protective cables that run from each of

the plugs (or metal parts) of the installation to the ground (the terrain). A "stake" or
"electrode" will be planted in the ground, always in direct contact with the ground.
All the grounding cables will be connected, by means of the grounding installation,
directly to this stake. This spike or electrode is what is usually called ground. The
installation will allow the passage to ground of fault currents (leaks) or dangerous
atmospheric discharge currents directly to the ground through the protection cables
via the rod. The entire installation is what is called "Grounding".

II. PARALLEL CIRCUIT

1. From the circuit in Figure 1:

a) Calculate the total resistance: RT= 0. 48 kohms

b) Calculate the total current: IT= 19. 5 mA

2. Build the circuit. Adjust the source until you get a reading of 15 V on the
voltmeter, between point A and F.
 Figure 1

3. Measure the voltage across each resistor:

a) VR1= 10 V.

b) VR2= 10 V.

c) VR3= 10 V.

d) VR4= 10 V.

4. Measure the current at points B, C, D and E indicated in the circuit. Note that
point A is different from point B. Figure 2a shows how to connect the ammeter.

Figure 2
a) IA= 19. 5 mA.

b) IB= 9.9 mA.

c) IC= 2.0 mA.

d) ID= 4.3 mA.

e) IE= 2.8 mA.

f) What is the voltage across each of the resistors with respect to the total voltage,
measured between points A and F?

It is equal to 10V, this is because the voltage in a parallel circuit is equal to the one
supplied.

g) How is the current for any path of the circuit with respect to the total current
measured (IA)?

The current intensity will depend on the resistance in the circuit, because some are
greater than others, the intensity values will be different in each line of the circuit.

h) Add the current in each of the paths (resistors) of the circuit and compare them
with the total current at point A. Are they the same? Yes, why? Why in a parallel
circuit, the sum of the intensities of the individual elements will be equal to the total
intensity of the circuit.

5. With the ammeter at point A and the voltmeter between A and F, adjust the
power source to 15V.

6. Add the 1K ohm resistor in parallel to the circuit.

a) What happens to the current?

It changes (decreases) because one more element was added.

b) What happens to the voltage?

The voltage changes for everyone because if it changes in the supply, it changes
in each element, but remains the same amount.

7. Disconnect from the circuit, one by one, the 1K ohm resistors that you
connected in the previous point, R4, R3 and R2.
a) On this occasion, what happened to the current?

Increase

b) What happened to the voltage?

Stay constant

Return the power supply to 0 volts. Disassemble the circuit.

8. Answer the following questions:

a) In a general parallel circuit, what is the current? It is different in each of its

elements.

b) And what is the voltage? It is equal to the voltage supplied to the circuit panel.

c) Express these characteristics in mathematical form:

For the current: I T =I 1 + I 2+ I 3 +…+ I n

For voltage: V T =V 1=V 2=V 3=…=V n

d) As resistances were removed, at point 7 the following was obtained:

- Total resistance: Increases, depending on the resistances that are removed.

- The total current measured: Decreases

- The voltage across each resistor: It remained the same at all points.

Indeed, by removing the resistors one by one, the total resistance increases, the
current decreases, the supply voltage and the voltage drops remain constant;
which implies that Ohm's Law is also fulfilled for parallel circuits.

e) What happens to the circuit when one of the resistors is short-circuited?

The multimeter or the power supply could be affected.

f) What happens to the circuit when the resistor opens?

Nothing, the reason it was opened was to be able to take the measurements that
were requested.

g) List 3 applications of parallel circuits, and justify their use.

 Basic electrical wiring of a house. It is through these circuits that power can
be cut to one device or appliance on a line without cutting power to the
 other. Even if a fault or short circuit occurs, it will not necessarily disable the
entire power supply circuit for the house. A parallel circuit allows all devices
to access the same power equally.
 Parallel circuits are used within many electrical devices and appliances. The
main reason this type of circuit is used in this context is to take advantage of
more than one power source, much like when using more than one battery
in a portable device.
 Parallel circuits are one of the main building blocks used in the infrastructure
that supplies power to large populations. To use them, safer and more
efficient electrical outlets were created. When the power in one circuit goes
down, the others continue to function.

III. SERIES - PARALLEL CIRCUIT

1.- Redraw the circuit in Figure 1, so that the resistors that are connected in
parallel can be easily located, that is, redraw it to make it clearer.

2. Calculate the resistances in parallel and write down your results: RT1 =
___56.89________ ohms RT2 = __68.75______ ohms.

3. Calculate the total resistance and total current of the circuit for a power
supply.

20V power. Write down your results. RT = __225.64_____ ohms, IT =

____88.636_____mA.
4. Build the circuit and check that the calculations performed in points 2 and 3
are correct.

5. Calculate the voltage across each resistor. Consider the parallel resistors as
their equivalent (RT1 and RT2) and check your calculations by making the
appropriate measurements.

Calculated values:

VRT1 = 5.0568 V

VRT2 = 6.084_V

VR6 = 8.85 V

Measured values:

VRT1 = 5.08 V

VRT2 = 6.74 V

VR6 = 8.87_V

6.Calculate the current that flows through each of the circuit's resistors:

I1= 50.42 mA
I2 = 22.918 mA

I3 = 15.27 mA

I4 = 27.695 mA

I5 = 60.93 mA

I6= 88.63 mA

7. Check current calculations by measuring them in the circuit.

I1 = 49.6 mA

I4 = 23 mA

I2 = 15.48 mA

I5 = 27.10 mA

I3 = 56 mA

I6= 87.4 mA

8. Write the equation for the total current in relation to the 6 measured currents
and check that your measurements are correct:

I= V/Rt

Vra= IR1 for the parallel

9. Write the equation for the total voltage in relation to the 6 voltages and check
that your measured values are correct:

__Vt= Va + Vb +Vr6

Propose a methodology for solving problems with Series-Parallel circuits.

Identify resistors in parallel to calculate an equivalent resistance to obtain a

series circuit and obtain a total resistance.
10. What power considerations must be made in a Series-Parallel circuit?

That the voltage is constant so the current will be different and for a series
circuit it is the opposite.
Fernandez Vera Guadalupe
2013130794

In this practice, four experiments were carried out:

In the first experiment, three resistors are used with values of: 1.-3300 ohms, 2.-
5600 ohms and 3.-2200 ohms. These resistors were applied a voltage of 16.25v in
AC, in order to measure the current that passes through each of them by means of
the multimeter; With this, Ohm's Law can be verified which states that V = IR,
V
therefore I = With TABLE 1, it was concluded that Ohm's Law was shown to be
R
applicable in both the calculated and measured values since the resistance is
inversely proportional to the current, to obtain the current, using a constant voltage,
the higher the resistance value, the lower the current intensity, so with constant
voltage, Ohm's Law was demonstrated since for resistance 3, the current value is
higher than for the other two resistors, while for resistance 2 the lowest current
value was obtained.

In the second experiment, only the 5600 ohm resistor was used, to which different
DC voltages were applied. Since only one resistor was used, in this experiment,
what must be varied is the voltage; since the voltage is directly proportional to the
current, to obtain the current, using the constant resistance, as the voltage
increases, the current will increase; therefore, with the constant resistance, it was
concluded that Ohm's Law was demonstrated through the second experiment.

In the third and fourth experiments, the non-generality of electronic elements for
Ohm's Law was demonstrated:

In the third experiment, current measurements were made for three different
resistances at different voltages. When graphing the voltage values against
current, it can be seen that they have a non-linear trend. Since resistors are ohmic
devices, it was concluded that there is no generality in Ohm's law for electronic
elements.

In the fourth experiment, measurements were made of the voltage necessary to

obtain a certain current in a system with a resistor and a diode. In the analysis of
the current versus voltage graph, it is observed that it has a linear behavior. Since
diodes are non-ohmic devices, it was concluded that there is no generality in
Ohm's law for electronic elements.

Ohm's law was verified in each of the circuits, in series, parallel and mixed,
checking voltage and current values taking into account the continuity of the
current so that no damage occurs to the measuring equipment, giving reference to
the conventional direction of the current.

In practice, we worked with variable resistors, so their value can vary within certain
limits, which is indicated by the last band of our resistance, which determines a
percentage of error. Taking this into account, we proceed to place the different
circuits to work on.

In the series circuit, the voltage varies across the different resistors we apply, while
the intensity in the circuit is the same across the different components (resistors).

By adding one more resistor I alter the data in the circuit, therefore the current in
the circuit decreases.

As for the parallel circuit, the intensity of the different components changes,
meanwhile the voltage remains constant since it works with an equivalent voltage
in this circuit.

In the last circuit we work with (series-parallel), being a mixed circuit, the rules with
which the circuit works must be taken into account since its components are
combined in order to make the respective measurements.

Bahena Gutierrez Gloria Mariana

2017320062
Using the knowledge previously acquired in theory and in the electrical and
electronic engineering laboratory, we create the series, parallel and mixed circuits
of the practice. A series circuit is one in which the components that constitute it are
placed sequentially. In a parallel circuit each of its components is arranged
independently of the rest. To make the circuit work, it is connected to a power
source that feeds it. At the end of the practice it is verified that:

In a series circuit:

a) The values of the resistors must be added together to obtain the

value of the total resistance.

b) The intensity of current that flows through the circuit will be the same
in each of the resistors.

c) The voltage will be different, since it will be distributed across each of

the resistors.

d) The more resistances are added to the circuit, the greater the
resistance will be while the current will decrease.

e) A series circuit follows Ohm's Law.

In a parallel circuit:

f) Each resistance value must be divided by 1, added together, and

raised to the power of -1 to obtain the total resistance of the circuit.

g) The voltage will be the same for the entire circuit, while the value of
the current intensity will be the one divided by each of the resistors.

h) As more resistors are removed from the circuit, the total resistance
will increase and the current will decrease.

i) A parallel circuit follows Ohm's Law.

Sarah Mariana Mesa Reyna

2017320802
According to the four experiments carried out, it can be concluded that a circuit is
an electrical network (interconnection of two or more components, such as
resistors, inductors, capacitors, sources, switches and semiconductors) that
contains at least one closed path. Circuits containing only sources, linear
components (resistors, capacitors, inductors), and linear distribution elements
(transmission lines or cables) can be analyzed by algebraic methods to determine
their behavior in direct current or alternating current.

The series circuit is a connection configuration in which the terminals of the

devices (generators, resistors, capacitors, switches, among others) are connected
sequentially. The output terminal of one device is connected to the input terminal of
the next device. In this circuit the current follows a possible path, encountering
resistance in each element along its path (switch, light bulb, etc.) and the total
resistance is the sum of the resistances of the circuit components.

A parallel circuit is a connection where the input terminals of all the connected
devices (generators, resistors, capacitors, etc.) match each other, as do their
output terminals; in this it was possible to identify that the circuit elements are in
different branches of it, if one of the paths is interrupted the others continue
working, the total current of the circuit is divided between all the parallel branches
and if all the currents of the parallel branches are added together the total current
is obtained.

A mixed circuit is one in which elements connected in series are interspersed with
elements connected in parallel. There are no set rules for creating a circuit of these
characteristics, as the combinations that can occur depend on the needs of the
moment and can be almost infinite.

Resendiz Gomez Chantal Abigail

2017321012

In the experimentation that was carried out, it can be concluded that circuits are the
pre-established path along which electrical charges move. The electrical charges
that constitute an electrical current pass from a point that has a higher electrical
potential to another that has a lower potential, made up of different types of
elements. In the case of the practice, it was carried out only with resistive
elements, an ohmic and linear element, by means of an energy source, in
alternating current or direct current.

A series circuit is one where the elements are arranged in a sequential manner,
making it so that when the resistances vary, their voltages will change, and the
intensity will tend to remain the same, because in a series circuit, with resistive
elements, the intensities remain constant and the total voltage is the sum of each
of the voltages of the elements.

In a parallel circuit, the elements are connected in a parallel manner to each other,
due to this it was noticed that the voltages are those that remain constant and are
equal to the one supplied, the total intensity is the sum of all the intensities of the
elements.

And finally, a mixed circuit is a combination of series and parallel circuits. This is
due to how the connections are made, they will tend to have the characteristics of
these, and to be able to calculate resistance, voltage and intensity, it can be done
mathematically by Ohm's Law.