Experiment 8: Series and Parallel Circuits
Laboratory Report
Frances Japlit, Ferrine Lina, Erica Alyssa Manalo, Denise Martinez
Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science
University of Santo Tomas
Abstract
An electric circuit is a whole system
composed of different electrical parts through
which the electric current can flow. It is
composed of components such as resistors,
transistors, capacitors, inductors, and diodes
(e.g. a battery). In this experiment the
resistance of the two resistors used for the
whole experiment was determined based on
its individual color code. The color code used
by the group was brown-red-brown-gold
which has a resistance of 120.05 ohms and
the other resistor was orange-orange-brown-
gold which translates to 330.05 ohms
resistance. Using the Ohms law which states
that the current on a conductor that is between
two points is directly proportional to the
voltage across the two points, the different
properties of the circuit was determined. The
first activity was for series connection of
resistors and the total resistance computed
was 450.1 and the theoretical resistance is
469.56 so the error was 4.32%. In the second
activity, the setup was for a parallel
connection of resistors and the experimental
resistance computed was 85.54 ohms while
the theoretical resistance is 88.30 ohms so the
error was 3.13%. The third activity was for
determining the internal resistance for a cell
and its value was 319.65 ohms. The last
activity uses both parallel and series
connection of two identical cells. The internal
resistance of the identical cells for series is
0.15 ohms and for the parallel it is 1.2 ohms.
Introduction
Electricity is the movement of electrons.
Electrons create charge, which can be
harnessed to do work. Lightbulb, stereo,
phone, etc., are all harnessing the movement
of the electrons in order to do work. They all
operate using the same basic power source:
the movement of electrons.
A circuit is a closed loop that allows
charge to move from one place to another.
Components in the circuit allow one to
control this charge and use it to do work.
Georg Ohm was a Bavarian scientist who
studied electricity. Ohm starts by describing
a unit of resistance that is defined by current
and voltage.
Voltage is the amount of potential
energy between two points on a circuit. One
point has more charge than another. The
difference in charge between the two points
is measured in volts. Current is measured in
Amperes which is defined as 6.241x1018
electrons per second passing through a point
in a circuit. Ohm defines the unit of resistance
of 1 Ohm as the resistance between two
points in a conductor where the application of
1 volt will push 1 ampere, or
6.2411018electrons. This value is usually
represented in schematics with the Greek
letter , which is called omega, and
pronounced ohm.
Current flows from a high voltage to
a lower voltage in a circuit. If two
components are in series, they share a
common node which is an electrical junction
between two or more components, and the
same current flows through them. However,
if components share two common nodes, they
are in parallel.
The objectives of this experiment are:
(1) to be able to determine the resistance of a
resistor based on its color code, and (2) to be
able to verify the laws on series or parallel
resistors and cells.
Theory
This experiment makes use of the
Ohms law. Most of the equation in this
experiment is derived from the concept of the
Ohms law.
 Ohms law shows the relationship
between the voltage and current in an ideal
conductor. The relationship states that the
potential difference across an ideal conductor
is proportional to the current through it. It
can be expressed through equation 1.
V=IR
Equation 1: Ohms Law
Where V is the potential difference
between two points, I is the current flowing,
and R is the constant of proportionality or
resistance.
In a series circuit, where resistors are
arranged in a chain, the current flows in only
one direction. Therefore, the current is the
same through each resistor. However, the
potential difference is shared through the
resistors. Since the voltage is shared
throughout the resistors, when added, it
makes up the total voltage. There are
different resistors, thus, different values of
resistance. The total resistance can be
obtained by adding all of the individual
values of the resistors resistance. All of these
are expressed through equations 2, 3, and 4,
respectively.
IT = I1= I2
Equation 2: Current in a Series Circuit
VT = V1 + V2
Equation 3: Voltage in a Series Circuit
RT = R1 + R 2
Equation 4: Resistance in a Series Circuit
Meanwhile, in a parallel circuit,
resistors are arranged with their head
connected together and tails connected
together. The current is distributed into
different branches of the circuit and then
recombined after being connected into the
same wire indicates that current may have
different values when travelling through the
wire. Total current is obtained by adding
different current values measured throughout
the circuit. However, voltage remains the
same throughout the parallel circuit. While
the total resistance is computed by adding the
reciprocal of the sum of reciprocals of the
different resistor values. These can be
expressed using equations 5, 6, and 7.
IT = I1 + I2
Equation 5: Current in a Parallel Circuit
VT = V1 = V2
Equation 6: Voltage in a Parallel Circuit
1
=
1 1
+
1 2
Equation 7: Total Resistance in a Parallel
Circuit
In Activity 1 and 2, the total
resistance in a parallel and series circuit were
computed for while the voltage and current
were measured using a voltmeter and an
ammeter. The experimental value of the total
resistance for parallel and series circuit were
obtained by using equation 8.
=
Equation 8: Experimental Total Resistance
Where RT is the total resistance, VT is
the total voltage (potential difference), and IT
is the total current.
Since activity 1 made use of the series
circuit, the theoretical yield for the total
resistance was computed using equation 4.
Meanwhile, since activity 2 made use of the
parallel circuit, theoretical yield for the total
resistance was obtained using equation 7.
Percent error was computed for as well.
In activity 3, the internal resistance of
the cell was obtained by measuring the
electromotive force, voltage and the current
with the use of a voltmeter and ammeter and
using equation 9.
 its terminals. A known resistance was
( ) connected in series with the cell. The current
= delivered to the circuit was then measured

Equation 9: Internal Resistance of the Cell using an ammeter and the internal resistance
of the cell was computed for.
Where r is the internal resistance, E is The fourth activity made use of the
the electromotive force, I is the current, R is same objective and principles, only the
the resistance, and V is the potential procedures were done twice, one on two
difference. identical cells connected in series, and the
other on two identical cells connected in
In activity 4, internal resistance was parallel, using the method in the third
also computed for using equation 9. activity. Generalizations were then made in
However, the cell is connected in a series and the cells in series and in parallel.
parallel circuit. Generalizations were made
wherein it was believed that a cell in a series
circuit has a stronger electromotive force
compared to a cell in a parallel circuit since
the internal resistance is small in a series
circuit compared to the internal resistance of
a cell in a parallel circuit.

Methodology
For the first activity, the resistance of
resistors were determined based on color
codes. These were recorded as R1 and R2.
The resistors were then connected in series to
a DC source. The voltage and current were
measured across each resistor using a Figure1: Measurement of current using
voltmeter and ammeter respectively. The Ammeter
total voltage and total current were also
measured across the combination. The total
experimental and actual resistance were then
computed, along with the percent error.

The second activity made use of the

same objective as the first activity, which is a
the determination of resistance of resistors
based on color codes. The same procedures
were done, except the resistors were
connected in parallel and different formulas
were used to calculate the experimental
resistance.

For the third activity, the

electromotive force of cells was determined Figure 2: Measurement of voltage using
using a voltmeter connected directly across Voltmeter
Results and Discussion resistance is also different from that of the
one used in the first activity which can be
Voltage (V) Current (I) referred to equation 7. It was shown that the
R1= 12 x 10 5.510 0.016 theoretical total resistance and the
5% experimental total resistance yields 3.13%
R2= 33 x 10 2.003 0.016 error.
5%
Theoretical RT = 450.10 Electromotive Force of the Cell 6.25
Experimental RT = 469.56 (E)
% Error = 4.32% Known Resistance (R) 330.05
Table 1: Resistance of a Resistor Connected Current (I) 0.601
in Series Internal Resistance of the Cell 319.65
(r)
The resistance of the given resistors Table 3: Determination of Electromotive
were obtained through the color codes Force of a cell
embedded in its bodies. As shown in table 1,
the resistance are 120 and 330 and it was The total internal resistance of a cell
observed that the current are equal regardless used in this activity was determined using the
of the resistance. However, the voltage for equation given in the theory which states that
each resistance varies. The theoretical total the electromotive force of the cell is directly
resistance was computed by adding both the proportional to internal resistance. The
resistance which yields 450.10 while the internal resistance is equal to the potential
experimental was 469.56 which gives a difference across the terminals of the cell
4.32% error. when no current is flowing. In this case only
one cell was used to determine its internal
resistance by using its other properties like
Voltage (V) Current (I) electromotive force, current, and resistance.
R1= 12 x 10 6.33 0.054 The voltmeter of the multimeter used to
5% determine the electromotive force of the cell
R2= 33 x 10 6.33 0.020 shown 6.25V with a known resistance of
5% 330.05 and the current measures to 0.601.
Theoretical RT = 85.54 The internal resistance was computed with all
Experimental RT = 88.30 the data gathered and is shown as 319.65.
% Error = 3.13%
Table 1: Resistance of a Resistor Connected In series In parallel
in Parallel Electromotive 11.75 6.79
Force of the Cell
In contrast with the data gathered in (E)
activity shown in table 1, this activity Known 120.05 120.05
involves parallel circuits which means that Resistance (R)
the voltages are equal regardless of the Current (I) 0.098 0.056
resistance and now the currents passing Table 4: Cells in Series and Cells in Parallel
through the resistors are the ones that varies.
In getting now the total current, all individual The same principle as that in the third
currents must be added up together. The activity was used here. However, the cells are
computation for the theoretical total now connected in two ways: Parallel and
Series. In the setup where the cells are
connected in series, the total electromotive
force is the sum of the two electromotive
force of the individual cells together.
Meanwhile in the series connection of cells,
determining the total electromotive force of
the cells was easier since the two values for
each are considered to be equal. It should be
taken note that even if the computation for the
total electromotive force depends on the
connection, the computation for the total
internal resistance is the same since only one
variable is being changed in this activity
which is the E.
By solely changing the way the cells
are connected a big difference in the total
internal resistance would be observed.
Looking at the difference of 0.15 and 1.2 it is
clear that a parallel connection gives more
total internal resistance to the cells.
Conclusion
Ohms law states that the current on a
conductor that is between two points is
directly proportional to the voltage across the
two points. The resistance is independent on
the value of the current and it is a constant.
This law was verified in this experiment and
it was used to determine values for the series
and parallel circuits properties such as
resistance, internal resistance, and total
internal resistance. In activity 3 and 4 it was
seen that when two voltage sources (cells)
having similar electromotive force is
connected to a parallel and connected to a
resistor, the total voltage is equal to the
individual voltages but the total resistance is
reduced since the internal resistances are in
parallel. When voltage sources are in series
facing the same direction, their internal
resistances add and their electromotive force
add algebraically.
Applications
1. The laws for parallel and series
resistance are as follows: A parallel
circuit, which has two or more paths
for current flow, have the same
voltage across each component of the
circuit, and if one of these are broken,
the current continues to flow on other
paths of the parallel circuit. In series
circuits, the resistance in two resistors
is the sum of its individual
resistances.
2. All in series: 20
all in parallel, 5/4 ohm = 1.25
3 in parallel, 1 in series, 5/3 + 5 =
6.67
2 in parallel, 2 in series, 5/2 + 52 =
12.5
2 strings of 2, strings in parallel.
2*5/2 = 5
two parallel pairs, in series, 2*5/2 =
5
1 string of 3, 1, in parallel, 15 || 5 = 1
/ [ (1/5) + (1/15) ] = 3.75
3. Water is a conductor for energy, and
since the human body is 70% made
up of water, the latter is also a good
conductor. Dry skin, however has a
high resistance to energy since it
lacks water in its surface, not
allowing for signals to travel or be
conducted in this dry material. Lie
detectors use this principle since
people who commit to lies have the
tendency to sweat when they
consciously lie. This creates a lower
resistance and easily conducts
signals in the lie detector that
stressful activity, such as sweating
and a faster heart rate, is happening
in the subject.
4. The human circulatory system is
similar to an electric circuit in that
both have current flowing in them,
either by form of blood and its other
constituents for the circulatory
system, or energy signals that are
transmitted through electric circuits,
which goes around and travels
 through every component in the ks/boundless-physics-textbook/circuits-and-
system. direct-currents-20/resistors-in-series-and-
5. A house is usually wired with parallel-151/charging-a-battery-emfs-in-
parallel circuits rather than series series-and-parallel-536-5597/
circuits. The reason for this is that a
parallel circuit would allow switches Cutnell, J.D. and Johnson, K.W. (2015).
to be turned on and off Introduction to Physics. John Wiley and
independently from each other since Sons, Inc.
every switch would have an
independent current flowing towards
it. If a house has a series circuit, it
would be very difficult to provide the
right power that would to flow in
each appliances because the potential
difference would vary depending on
the resistance of the appliance. When
house wiring is done in parallel this
problem does not arise as the
potential difference across each
appliance is the same and equal to
the potential difference being
provided by the power company.
6. A defibrillator works by using a
high-voltage (something like 200
1000 volts) to pass an electric current
through the heart so it's shocked into
working normally again. The
patient's heart receives roughly 300
joules of electrical energy. It consists
of an electric supply unit and two
metal electrodes called paddles that
are pressed very firmly to the
patient's chest. The important thing
is getting the current to flow through
the heart. In order for the electric
current to flow properly, and to
reduce the risk of skin burns, the
electrodes have to be applied close
enough together.

References
Boundless. Charging a Battery:
EMFs in Series and Parallel. Boundless
Physics. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved
29 Nov. 2016 from
https://www.boundless.com/physics/textboo