Parallel/Series Combination Circuits

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter N2L48
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Circuits Combination
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 2K views
N2L48
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
I understand the concepts of whether a resistor is in parallel or in series with each other. But I thought of a weird case that i can't seem to find examples for.

http://imgur.com/b2YMOnAIn this case, would R3 be in parallel or in series to R2? Or could this just be an impossible case?

Thanks in advance
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
N2L48 said:
I understand the concepts of whether a resistor is in parallel or in series with each other. But I thought of a weird case that i can't seem to find examples for.

Can you do this circuit?

attachment.php?attachmentid=58292&stc=1&d=1367133626.png


How does it differ from yours?
 

Attachments

  • circuit2.png
    circuit2.png
    1.8 KB · Views: 566
willem2 said:
Can you do this circuit?

attachment.php?attachmentid=58292&stc=1&d=1367133626.png


How does it differ from yours?

Thanks for the reply.

For that circuit, R3 and R2 would be parallel, so it would be the sum of the reciprocals of R2 and R3. Afterwards, R3+2 will be in series to R1 (Sum of both will give the Req).

My initial assumption was that the circuit I posted was the same as the one you posted, that R3 is parallel to R2, since there's more than 1 flow from R3 to R2. However I read something that confused me, and I just wanted to verify if my assumption was correct.
 
N2L48 said:
Thanks for the reply.

For that circuit, R3 and R2 would be parallel, so it would be the sum of the reciprocals of R2 and R3. Afterwards, R3+2 will be in series to R1 (Sum of both will give the Req).

My initial assumption was that the circuit I posted was the same as the one you posted, that R3 is parallel to R2, since there's more than 1 flow from R3 to R2. However I read something that confused me, and I just wanted to verify if my assumption was correct.

Yes, you're assumption was correct, and the 2 circuits are identical.