ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
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Types of circuits
There are three ways a circuit can be wired:
•Series
• Parallel
• Series/parallel
Series
Series circuits are wired so that the current has
only one path to follow. If one component in the system
fails, the circuit will be broken and whole system will
not work. See Figure 7.18.
Parallel
Parallel circuits are wired so that current has multi-
ple paths to follow. If a component in one of the paral-
lel paths fails, the rest of the circuit will keep working.
See Figure 7.19.
Series/parallel
Series/parallel circuits have some sections wired in
series and some in parallel. See Figure 7.20.
What can go wrong?
There are three types of failures that can occur in
an electrical circuit:
1. Shorts
2. Opens
3. Increased resistance
Shorts
A short is when electricity takes a path that it was
not designed to take by-passing a component in the cir-
cuit.
A common example of a short is a wire with insula-
tion that chafed through, exposing the copper conduc-
tor. The bare copper will short the circuit when it
touches a ground source.
Opens
An open is when current can not complete its path
back to the power source. A common example of this is
a burned-out lamp (light bulb) in a series circuit.
Figure 7.18
Switch
Battery
Lamp
Figure 7.19
Battery
Lamp
Lamp
Lamp
Figure 7.20
Battery
Lamp Switch
Lamp
Lamp
Lamp
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