Regents Physics Practice Test Name_________________________

Unit 10: Electric Circuits

Directions: Part A: (1 10) Multiple Choice: Darken, circle, or otherwise indicate your choice Ior the letter oI
the choice which best answers the question or statement. Part B: (11 17) Short Answer: Write your answer in
the space provided. Part C: (18) Critical Thinking/Problem Solving: Write your answer in the space provided.
Show all work on problems, including units in your calculations. Answer verbal responses with complete
sentences.
Scoring: Each question in part A are worth one point. Parts B and C are worth ten points each. The value oI
the question or part oI the question is in |brackets| aIter the question. Your test grade is based on a raw score oI
30 points.

Part A: Multiple Choice
1. The electric potential diIIerence across a conducting material is measured as
A)voltage.
B)resistance.
C)power.
D)current.

2. Which oI the Iollowing actions will cause a material`s electric resistance to increase?
A)Increasing its temperature.
B)Increasing its length.
C)Decreasing the diameter or thickness.
D)All oI these will increase the resistance.

3. According to Ohm`s law, Ior a given load, iI the current through the load increased, what happened to the
voltage across it?
A)It increases.
B)It decreases.
C)It remains the same.

4. The diagram to the right represents the junction oI Iour wires. I
1
2.70 Amperes, I
2
3.80
Amperes, I
3
1.50 Amperes, with directions as indicated in the diagrams. What is the
magnitude and direction oI I
4
?
A)8.00 Amperes out oI the junction.
B)2.60 Amperes into the junction.
C)5.30 Amperes into the junction.
D)2.60 Amperes out oI the junction.

5. In a series circuit loop, three loads have potential diIIerences oI 8.0 v, 12.0 v and 3.4 v respectively. The
total current in the circuit is 3.00 Amps. What is the amount oI the current through the second load?
A)21.4 A
B)3.0 A
C)4.0 A
D)7.6 A

I
4
?
I
3

I
2

I
1

6. As loads are added in parallel to a circuit what happens to the total current in the circuit?
A)It increases
B)It remains the same.
C)It decreases.

7. What quantity is the same Ior each component oI a circuit when they are wired in series with one another?
A)Voltage
B)Resistance
C)Current
D)power

8. As loads are added in series to a circuit, what happens to the voltage across each load in the circuit?
A)It increases.
B)It remains the same.
C)It decreases.

9. As loads are added in series to a circuit, what happens to the total energy used by the circuit in a certain
amount oI time?
A)It remains the same.
B)It decreases.
C)It increases.

10. An electrical saIety device the melts when a certain amount oI current Ilows through it is a
A)voltmeter.
B)circuit breaker.
C)ground Iault interrupter.
D)Iuse.

Part B: Short Answer
Use diagram to the right and the Iollowing inIormation to answer questions
11 12. The diagram is oI a simple electrical circuit oI a battery connected to a
light bulb. The potential diIIerence oI the battery is 14.00 volts. The bulb has a
resistance 42.0 . The circuit operates Ior 24.0 seconds.
11. How much electric charge Ilows through the lamp while it is on? |2|








12. How much energy does the lamp convert into light while it is on? |2|
-
+
B
a
t
t
e
r
y
Light
13. What is the resistance oI a 420.0 meter long copper wire that has a cross-sectional area oI 2.4010
-2
m
2
? |1|









14. As the cross-sectional area oI a conductor is increased, what happens to its electrical resistance? |1|









15. Three resistors are connected in parallel with each other. They have resistances oI 3.00 , 30.00 and
10.00 respectively. What is their eIIective resistance? |2|










16. Explain why a voltmeter must be connected in parallel to what it is measuring. |1|









17. Explain why ammeters must be have a very low resistance compared to what they are measuring. |1|


Part C: Problem Solving/Critical Thinking
18. Three resistors are to be connected in separate parallel branches to a single voltage source. They will have
current Ilowing through each oI them as Iollows: I
1
24.00 mA, I
2
320.00 mA, and I
3
96.00 mA. The
total power in the circuit is 1.320 Watts.
A)Draw a circuit diagram oI this circuit using the symbols provided on the reIerence sheet. |2|
B)On the circuit diagram indicate where you would need to place an ammeter to measure the total current
in the circuit. |1|
C)On the circuit diagram indicated where you would need to place a voltmeter to measure the potential
diIIerence across the second resistor. |1|
D)Determine the value oI the source voltage Ior the circuit. |2|
E)Determine the resistances oI each load in the circuit. |3|
F)What would happen to the eIIective resistance oI this circuit iI another load where added in parallel with
the others? |1|
Unit 10 Practice Test Answers
Electric Circuits

1. A
2. D The resistance of a material is directly related to its length and temperature and inversely related to its
cross-sectional area.
3. A If you think of equation for Ohms Law: =

and resistance remains constant, then there is a direct

relation between voltage and current. Another way of showing this relation is: = . Note this is a
classic linear equation showing the direct relation between current and voltage when resistance is
constant.
4. D This is an application of Kirchoffs Current Law The sum of all currents at a junction of conductors
must equal zero. Let all currents entering the junction be (+) and all currents leaving the junction be (-).
Thus: 0 =
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
= 2.7 +3,8 +1.5 +
4
= 2.6 +
4
so I
4
= -2.6 A meaning that the
current is leaving the junction. Another way of looking at this is that I
2
and I
3
are entering the junction and
are obviously greater than I
1
exiting the junction, thus I
4
has to be exiting the junction so you just have to
determine its value.
5. B Remember, in a simple series circuit loop, the current anywhere in the loop is the same as the total
current flowing from the source, since there is only one path for current to flow through. The information
about the voltage drops is a distractor from what the question is actually asking. Standardized Tests do
this all the time. It turns the question from being simply a physics comprehension question to a reading
comprehension question about physics concepts.
6. A Recall for any circuit that

. For a parallel circuit, as you add more loads in parallel, the

effective resistance the source experiences decreases (it has to drive more current into the circuit to supply
the new branch that was created). Since effective resistance decreases, that means that the total current must
increase since the source voltage is not changing.
7. C Voltage must be shared between all loads in series, resistance depends on the load itself, the power of
each component depends on the voltage drop across it and the current flowing through it. Thus the only
thing that all the loads would experience that is the same is the current flowing through all of them.
8. C Adding a new load in series means that the available voltage must be shared with an additional
component. This is why if you add another light to a string of lights that are wired in series to a single
voltage source, all the lights get dimmer because each has a smaller voltage across it with the addition of the
new light.
9. B Since

, and the effective resistance of a series circuit increases as you add more loads, that
means that the total current decreases. The Power of the circuit is the product of the source voltage times
the total current, thus if I
T
is decreasing, so will the total power.
10. D Fuses are desired to melt when a certain current flows through them. They are essentially thin pieces of
wire and the friction of the electrons moving through the metal heats it. If the current becomes to large (too
many electrons moving through the fuse), then the heating becomes sufficient to melt the metal.

Part B:
11. Charge is related to how much current is flowing: =

. So, since we know the voltage across the light

has to be equal to the voltage supplied by the battery, and we know the resistance of the light bulb, we can
determine the current using Ohms Law. Since we know that the circuit operates for 24 seconds, we can use
the current and the time to determine the charge that flowed:
=

=
14
42
= 0.333 ., thus = = 0.33324 = 8.00

12. Energy equals the power times the time, so = = 14 0.333 24 = 112
13. =

=
1.7210
8
(420 )
2.4010
2
m
2
= 3.01 10
4
Remember to look up the resistivity (U) on the reference
table.
14. Note from the previous equation that resistance and cross-sectional area are inversely related. So, as the
cross-sectional area increases, the resistance of the material will decrease.
15.
1

=
1

1
+
1

2
+
1

3
=
1
3
+
1
30
+
1
10
=
10
30
+
1
30
+
3
30
=
14
30
so

=
30
14
= 2.14
16. Since Voltmeters measure voltages (potential differences) and a property of a parallel connection is that
everything that is in a parallel connection experiences the same potential difference, a voltmeter must make
a parallel connection to what it is measuring rather than being placed in series with it. Some acceptable
answers would be:
A voltmeter must be connected in parallel because everything in the parallel connection experiences the
same voltage.
A voltmeter must be connected in parallel because component connected in series they have to share the
available voltage, thus the voltmeter would not be reading the voltage on what it is measuring.
A voltmeter must be connected in parallel because the voltage is the same for everything connected in
parallel.
17. Ammeters must have a very small resistance because it has to be connected in series, so it cannot have a
high resistance or it will change the normal amount of current flowing in the circuit or that part of the
circuit. Acceptable answers would be:
Ammeters need very low resistances because they are connected in series and would change the current
if they had high resistances.
Ammeters must have very low resistance because they should not significantly change the amount of
current flowing when connected in series.
If an ammeter has a resistance similar to what it is measure, it will reduce the actual amount of current
flowing through what it is measuring. So, its resistance needs to be really low because of that.

Part C:
18. Please note that this is described as a parallel circuit. On the actual test, you may be asked to do a series
circuit instead. Read the problem carefully before proceeding.
A. The diagram to the right is a typical schematic diagram for a
parallel circuit. Any diagram that shows separate paths for
current to flow from the source to each resistor would be
acceptable.



B. Using the same diagram (I am copy/pasting it for clarity), you
could put a symbol for an ammeter ( ) in either location
noted on the diagram. You do not need to put one in both
locations. Either one is sufficient. You must draw your
symbol in the line to indicate that the ammeter is in series with
what it is measuring.

C. Using the same diagram (again, I am copy/pasting for clarity),
you must show a parallel connection to the voltmeter from the
second resistor to show that you are measuring the voltage
across the second resistor.


A
+
-
+
-
A
A
Either
Place
+
-
V
D. We have been given each of the branch current and the total power of the circuit. Since this is a parallel
circuit, we know that the total current in the circuit is equal to the sum of all the branch currents. Once
we determine that, we can find the source voltage because the total power is the product of the Source
Voltage and the Total Current.

=
1
+
2
+
3
= 24 +320 +96 = 440

so

=
1.32
0.440
= 3.00

E. Remember that since this is a parallel circuit, the voltage across each resistor is equal to the source
voltage. Use Ohms Law to determine each resistance using the source voltage as the individual
potential difference across that resistor, and the given branch current.

1
=

1

1
=
3
0.024
= 125

2
=

2

2
=
3
0.32
= 9.38

3
=

3

3
=
3
0.096
= 31.3

F. I hope at this point you realize that in a parallel circuit, if you add another parallel branch, it means the
source has to push out more current to supply the new branch. If the source experiences an increase in
current, it must mean that it feels a decrease in effective resistance.