How do breadboards work?

Figure 1. A solderless breadboard, with a few conducting rows and columns highlighted. A solderless breadboard is used to temporarily connect components for test measurements. Wire leads from components are inserted into the holes. See Figure 1. Underneath the array of holes are conducting strips. As the highlighting added to Figure 1 shows, the long horizontal rows at the top and bottom form four separate conducting strips, usually called buses. Similarly, running vertically down the board, are numbered columns, each connected with conducting strips. Thus, R1 and R2 are connected by virtue of their leads both being inserted into column 17. Can you see another pair of resistors on this breadboard that are electrically connected? Note that the board is divided into two halves. So, the top half of column 17 is separate from the bottom half of column 17, as shown by the different highlighting.

Why does adding bulbs make them all dimmer?

We can use a solderless breadboard to connect small light bulbs to a voltage source. A 9-volt battery, for example, makes a bulb burn brightly. When we connect two bulbs in series, however, the pair of bulbs get dim. And if we connect three bulbs, they do not light up at all. See Figures 1, 2, 3.

Figure 1. A circuit with one light bulb.

Figure 2. A circuit with two light bulbs in series.

Figure 3. A circuit with three light bulbs in series. What causes a bulb to burn brightly? It's the current! The voltage from the battery is able to move enough electrons through the tiny wire in the bulb's filament to make it white hot. See Figure 1. When you put two bulbs (two resistors) in series, you've doubled the resistance. See Figure 2. Ohm's Law tells us that will cut the current in half. Less current means less heat in those filaments, and so not as bright. When you put three bulbs (three resistors) in series, now you've tripled the resistance, and the current is cut even more. See Figure 3. In fact, now there is so little current, that the filaments will not glow at all. What happens if you lift up one of the wires in the series circuit? That opens the circuit. There's no way the electrons can flow. So, there is no current at all! No current means no light. And that's exactly the way a light switch works!

Finding Current with Ohm's Law

Figure 1. A voltage V dropping across a resistor R in a circuit with a current I.

In the early 1800's, George Ohm discovered a mathematical relationship for electric circuits with simple resistors. With a circuit having a current I (in amperes), the voltage (V, in volts) dropped across a resistance (R, in ohms) is V = I x R. This relationship often appears three ways:

We can use the second form above to calculate the current in a circuit. Suppose a meter measures a "voltage drop" of V = 12 volts across a resistor with R = 4 ohm. Then the current is:

Notice the units: 1 ampere of current is defined as 1 volt per ohm. You must be careful working with the units. Voltage is often given in millivolts (1/1,000 volt). Resistance may be in kilohms (1,000 ohms) or even megohms (1,000,000 ohms). Resulting current may then be in milliamps (1/1,000 ampere) or even microamps (1/1,000,000 ampere). Suppose you measure 18 volts across a 220 kilohm resistor. The expected current is:

This very small current would usually be converted to "microamps."

It is often helpful to convert metric prefixes to scientific notation.

micro- = 106

milli- = 103

kilo- = 103

mega- = 106

Finding Voltage with Ohm's Law

Figure 1. A voltage V dropping across a resistor R in a circuit with a current I. In the early 1800's, George Ohm discovered a mathematical relationship for electric circuits with simple resistors. With a circuit having a current I (in amperes), the voltage (V, in volts) dropped across a resistance (R, in ohms) is V = I x R. This relationship often appears three ways:

The first form allows us to calculate the voltage drop across a resistor for a given current in a circuit. Suppose an ammeter measures a current of I = 1.8 amperes through a resistance of R = 3.5 ohm. Then the voltage dropped by the resistance is:

Notice the units: 1 volt per ohm is defined to yield 1 ampere of current. You must be careful working with the units. Currents are often measured in milliamps (1/1,000 ampere) or even microamps (1/1,000,000 ampere). Resistance may be in kilohms (1,000 ohms) or even megohms (1,000,000 ohms). Suppose a current of 3.9 milliamps passes through a 2.5 megohm resistor. The voltage across the resistor:

It is often helpful to convert metric prefixes to scientific notation.

micro- = 106

milli- = 103

kilo- = 103

mega- = 106

Finding Current with Ohm's Law

Figure 1. A voltage V dropping across a resistor R in a circuit with a current I. In the early 1800's, George Ohm discovered a mathematical relationship for electric circuits with simple resistors. With a circuit having a current I (in amperes), the voltage (V, in volts) dropped across a resistance (R, in ohms) is V = I x R. This relationship often appears three ways:

We can use the second form above to calculate the current in a circuit. Suppose a meter measures a "voltage drop" of V = 12 volts across a resistor with R = 4 ohm. Then the current is:

Notice the units: 1 ampere of current is defined as 1 volt per ohm. You must be careful working with the units. Voltage is often given in millivolts (1/1,000 volt). Resistance may be in kilohms (1,000 ohms) or even megohms (1,000,000 ohms). Resulting current may then be in milliamps (1/1,000 ampere) or even microamps (1/1,000,000 ampere). Suppose you measure 18 volts across a 220 kilohm resistor. The expected current is:

This very small current would usually be converted to "microamps."

It is often helpful to convert metric prefixes to scientific notation.

micro- = 106

milli- = 103

kilo- = 103

mega- = 106

Finding Current with Ohm's Law

Figure 1. A voltage V dropping across a resistor R in a circuit with a current I. In the early 1800's, George Ohm discovered a mathematical relationship for electric circuits with simple resistors. With a circuit having a current I (in amperes), the voltage (V, in volts) dropped across a resistance (R, in ohms) is V = I x R. This relationship often appears three ways:

We can use the second form above to calculate the current in a circuit. Suppose a meter measures a "voltage drop" of V = 12 volts across a resistor with R = 4 ohm. Then the current is:

Notice the units: 1 ampere of current is defined as 1 volt per ohm. You must be careful working with the units. Voltage is often given in millivolts (1/1,000 volt). Resistance may be in kilohms (1,000 ohms) or even megohms (1,000,000 ohms). Resulting current may then be in milliamps (1/1,000 ampere) or even microamps (1/1,000,000 ampere). Suppose you measure 18 volts across a 220 kilohm resistor. The expected current is:

This very small current would usually be converted to "microamps."

It is often helpful to convert metric prefixes to scientific notation.

micro- = 106

milli- = 103

kilo- = 103

mega- = 106

Finding Voltage with Ohm's Law

Figure 1. A voltage V dropping across a resistor R in a circuit with a current I. In the early 1800's, George Ohm discovered a mathematical relationship for electric circuits with simple resistors. With a circuit having a current I (in amperes), the voltage (V, in volts) dropped across a resistance (R, in ohms) is V = I x R. This relationship often appears three ways:

The first form allows us to calculate the voltage drop across a resistor for a given current in a circuit. Suppose an ammeter measures a current of I = 1.8 amperes through a resistance of R = 3.5 ohm. Then the voltage dropped by the resistance is:

Notice the units: 1 volt per ohm is defined to yield 1 ampere of current. You must be careful working with the units. Currents are often measured in milliamps (1/1,000 ampere) or even microamps (1/1,000,000 ampere). Resistance may be in kilohms (1,000 ohms) or even megohms (1,000,000 ohms). Suppose a current of 3.9 milliamps passes through a 2.5 megohm resistor. The voltage across the resistor:

It is often helpful to convert metric prefixes to scientific notation.

micro- = 106

milli- = 103

kilo- = 103

mega- = 106

Finding Current with Ohm's Law

Figure 1. A voltage V dropping across a resistor R in a circuit with a current I. In the early 1800's, George Ohm discovered a mathematical relationship for electric circuits with simple resistors. With a circuit having a current I (in amperes), the voltage (V, in volts) dropped across a resistance (R, in ohms) is V = I x R. This relationship often appears three ways:

We can use the second form above to calculate the current in a circuit. Suppose a meter measures a "voltage drop" of V = 12 volts across a resistor with R = 4 ohm. Then the current is:

Notice the units: 1 ampere of current is defined as 1 volt per ohm. You must be careful working with the units. Voltage is often given in millivolts (1/1,000 volt). Resistance may be in kilohms (1,000 ohms) or even megohms (1,000,000 ohms). Resulting current may then be in milliamps (1/1,000 ampere) or even microamps (1/1,000,000 ampere).

Suppose you measure 18 volts across a 220 kilohm resistor. The expected current is:

This very small current would usually be converted to "microamps."

It is often helpful to convert metric prefixes to scientific notation.

micro- = 106

milli- = 103

kilo- = 103

mega- = 106

Total Resistance for Resistors in Series

The effect of resistors wired in series is that the voltage drop from each resistor adds up. Thus, all the resistors act like one big resistor, whose value equals the sum of the individual resistors. So, the formula for the total resistance of series resistances R1, R2, R3, is:

Figure 1. Three resistors in series. For example, suppose the circuit in Figure 1 above has R1 = 750 , R2 = 1.33 k, and R3 = 562 . Then the total series resistance for this circuit is

or RTOT = 2.642 k. Note: It is important to convert to consistent units, if necessary. Above, we converted 1.33 k to 1330 so that we consistently added ohms, not a mixture of ohms and kilohms.