Verified answer

All of the outlets in your home are connected in parallel. They are connected that way so the voltage will be the same at each outlet.

The headlamps in your vehicle are connected in parallel. This is so if one burns out, you will still have the other lamp still lit.

Inexpensive holiday light strings are almost always connected in series. It's much cheaper to do it this way and each bulb will be at a significantly lower voltage than the total line voltage.

The tubes in older TV sets are wired in series and each tube drops a portion of the voltage - the total voltage drop is equal to the line or 120 V AC. It was done this way to eliminate the earlier need for an expensive and heavy transformer.

Electrical engineers often draw a series of circuit diagrams where they combine resistors (in series or in parallel) to obtain equivalent resistors then repeat the process until all equivalent resistors are found. This often allows current to be calculated through one or more resistors leading to calculations of voltage drops. Electrons flow through wires and resistors like water flows through pipes and valves. If resistors are in series the resistances add up to a higher value. If resistors are in parallel, there are two or more possible paths for flow and the equivalent resistance will be lower than that in and one branch.

Two 1 1/2 volt batteries connected positive to negative in a flashlight to make 3 volts. That's series! Two 1 1/2 volt batteries connected positive to positive and negative to negative to make 1 1/2 volts with more oomph and connected to a small motor. Hope that's an understandable answer!

In a series circuit : there will be a voltage drop for each component(resistors,etc.).

So suppose I have three devices that have three different voltage requirements. I could essentially deisign a series circuit so that a voltage drop would occur over each, providing the next one with the voltage it needs. That will hold true then to the law that the sum of the voltage drops will add up to the supply voltage.

If device1 uses 5 volts, device2 8volts, and device3 10volts, they sum to 23 volts, which means my source has to be 23 volts.

This is rather handy when you want to troubleshoot the circuit. By testing the source, then the voltage drop of each component I will know if there is a faulty component.

If I install two resistors of equal value to a source in a series, the voltage drop will be equal on both. If three resistors of equal value the voltage drop will be equal on all three. So voltage drop is related to the current travelling through the device.

Disadvantage: If one device goes out the path is broken and no current flows.

In a series circuit, since each is connected end to end, the current is the same for all devices, it is only the voltage seen at each that varies if they are of different values.

Example would be a single string of Christmas lights. On one single string of lights if one bulb goes out the entire string goes out.

You could thing of a series circuit as an old country road, in need of repair. All those pot holes and slanted roads and perhaps poor driving conditions will limit how fast a car can travel across this road. However, if there are other cars on the same road going the same direction they are all limited to traveling no faster than the first car. This means, at top speed all cars have to travel the same speed. Just like the current in the series circuit does, there is only one path, so the current has to travel the same through all components to return to the source along this one path.

Parellel circuits:

This is where a single branch comes from a source, for example, and is divided into several paths - each path goes to a different component, then all paths rejoin to a single path to return back to the source.

What happens here is the opposite. The same voltage is applied to each component but the current travelling through each one is different if their values are different. If the values are the same the current is the same.

An example of this is home wiring, If one wall outlet goes out the others can still operate since there is several paths for current to travel.

Again, you can troubleshoot these type of circuits by testing the current through any one device. If it is significantly different than one expected then it means one of the devices in this parallel circuit is malfunctioning and the current is no longer divided between three paths,for example, and is only travelling through two paths, which causes the current through both of these paths to be greater while no current is travelling through path #3.

A fuse would be connected in series to protect the entire circuit, if it were connected in parallel you would require one fuse for each branch.

In a factory setting the ventalation fans (more than one) would be connected in parallel because if one fails you do not want all of them to go out, you want some ventalation to continue and it is very unlikely all of them would fail at the same time or under the exact same conditions.

A Series circuit will help to limit voltage to a device while a parallel will helpt to limit current.

If you have two devices that have the same voltage requirements you would connect them in parallel. If you have two divices that have different voltage requirements you will connect them in a series, if the voltage drop across device1 is not sufficiently dropped for device2 you will install a resistor between the two so it can drop enough voltage to allow the safe operation of device2.

I hope this helps ya....