Combining Resistors in Series & Parallel Video Lessons

Concept

# Problem: Consider the circuit with three identical light bulbs shown. What will happen to the brightness of bulbs a and c if bulb b is unscrewed? a. Both bulbs a and c will go out completely b. Both bulbs a and c will remain at the same brightness level that they were before b was unscrewed. c. Bulb a will get brighter and bulb c will get dimmer. d. Bulb a will get dimmer and bulb c will get brighter. e. Bulb a will stay the same but bulb c will get dimmer. f. Bulb a will get brighter and bulb c will stay the same.

###### FREE Expert Solution

In this problem, we are required to combine resistors in series and in parallel.

Equivalent resistance for resistors in parallel:

$\overline{)\frac{\mathbf{1}}{{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{eq}}}{\mathbf{=}}\frac{\mathbf{1}}{{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{1}}}{\mathbf{+}}\frac{\mathbf{1}}{{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{2}}}{\mathbf{+}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{+}}\frac{\mathbf{1}}{{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{n}}}}$

or for 2 resistors:

$\overline{){{\mathbf{R}}}_{{\mathbf{eq}}}{\mathbf{=}}\frac{{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{1}}{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{2}}}{{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{1}}\mathbf{+}{\mathbf{R}}_{\mathbf{2}}}}$

Equivalent resistance for resistors in series:

$\overline{){{\mathbf{R}}}_{{\mathbf{eq}}}{\mathbf{=}}{{\mathbf{R}}}_{{\mathbf{1}}}{\mathbf{+}}{{\mathbf{R}}}_{{\mathbf{2}}}{\mathbf{+}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{+}}{{\mathbf{R}}}_{{\mathbf{n}}}}$

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###### Problem Details

Consider the circuit with three identical light bulbs shown. What will happen to the brightness of bulbs a and c if bulb b is unscrewed?

a. Both bulbs a and c will go out completely

b. Both bulbs a and c will remain at the same brightness level that they were before b was unscrewed.

c. Bulb a will get brighter and bulb c will get dimmer.

d. Bulb a will get dimmer and bulb c will get brighter.

e. Bulb a will stay the same but bulb c will get dimmer.

f. Bulb a will get brighter and bulb c will stay the same.