What is the difference between parallel circuit lights and series circuit lights using the idea of current flow?

Answer 1

Parallel circuit lights are built as so:

______light_______

|_____light_______|

|_____battery_____|

Series circuit lights are built like this:

___light___light___battery___

|________________________|

In a parallel circuit, lights don't get dimmer when you add more, and if one breaks, the others still work. In a series circuit, when you add more, the lights get dimmer, and when one breaks, they all break. It is possible to have a combination of both in one circuit though.

Answer 2

In a series circuit, the current use remains the same while the voltage that each device receives drops. So as you add more lights in series (connected in a row), the dimmer each light will be. However, your battery will drain at the same rate as if you had used a single bulb.

In a parallel circuit, the voltage to the devices remains the same (or close to it) as you add more devices, but the current is shared among the devices. So as you add more lights in parallel, the lights should not dim, provided you have enough current for all the bulbs. However, as you add more bulbs in parallel, the more current you are using and thus the faster you will drain the battery.