What happens to the light bulbs in a series circuit?

Answer 1

The brightness of a lamp depends on its power rating, which is printed on the globe. This power rating onlyapplies at its rated voltage (e.g. 120 V in North America, and 230 V in Europe). When you connect lamps in series, you are connecting their individual resistances in series, and a voltage drop will appear across each lamp. For example, if you had, say, two 60-W lamps connected in series with each other across a 120-V supply, then 60 V would appear across each lamp, so the lamps would be considerably dimmer than their power ratings would suggest.

The drop in power is not proportional to the drop in its rated voltage; it is considerably higher. It can be shown that for electric heaters, for example, a 10% drop in rated voltage causes a 19% drop in power! This is not necessarily the case for lamps, as their resistance changes significantly with temperature.

If the lamps were of different power rating, then the lamps with the greater power rating would be dimmer than those with the lower power ratings -which is not what you might expect.

Answer 2

They all have the same level of current in each, the supply voltage is split across each one. If all the lamps or "bulbs" are of the same wattage and therefore the same resistance then the voltage across each will be the same.

WARNING:

Be careful with Christmas tree lights, they are in series!!

If one blows they all go out but you then have the full mains voltage at the point where the blown lamp - bulb is!

So unplug them first if you know which one has blown, it is much safer to test each lamp with a multimeter than try to find the blown one using a new lamp - bulb in each of the lampholders.

Answer 3

As more light bulbs are added to a series circuit, assuming that the voltage source does not change, and assuming that the power rating on the bulbs does not change, then the current will decrease.

However, it will not decrease exactly as you might expect, because the resistance of the bulb is related to its temperature. As the bulbs grow dimmer, they will be cooler, so their temperature will decrease slightly. For example, going from one bulb to two will not exactly cut the current by two, it will wind up being ever so slightly higher than half of the original.

Answer 4

dim

Answer

For a lamp to operate at its rated power, it must be subject to its rated voltage -this voltage, of course, matching the supply voltage. If you connect lamps in series, then the voltage appearing across each lamp will be a fraction of the supply (and, therefore, the rated voltage) voltage (Kirchhoff's Voltage Law: the sum of the voltage drops around a closed loop will equal the supply voltage) and, so, the power of each lamp will be lower than their rated power. Significantly lower, in fact, as the resulting power is not proportional to the drop in voltage). Surprisingly, perhaps, the lamp with the highest power rating will be the least bright, while the lamp with the lowest power rating will be the brightest! This is because more powerful lamps have lower resistance than less powerful lamps and, so, the voltage drop across the less powerful lamps will be greater.

Answer 5

-- the total resistance of the series circuit increases

-- the total power dissipated by the series circuit decreases

-- the current through the series circuit decreases

-- the voltage across each bulb decreases

-- the current through each bulb decreases

-- the power dissipated by each bulb decreases

-- the bulbs that were there originally become dimmer

Answer 6

NOTHING they all quit working because of a broken string.

Answer 7

the light becomes less bright showing that the bulb needs more energy and also that the flow of electricity is more