What is an electrical circuit?.

An electrical circuit is a closed loop formed by a power source, wires, a fuse, a load, and a switch. When the switch is turned on, the electrical circuit is complete and current flows from the negative terminal of the power source, through the wire to the load, to the positive terminal. Any device that consumes the energy flowing through a circuit and converts that energy into work is called a load. A light bulb is one example of a load. It consumes the electricity from a circuit and converts it into work — heat and light.

There are three types of circuits: series circuits, parallel circuits, and series-parallel circuits. A series circuit is the simplest because it has only one possible path that the electrical current may flow. If the electrical circuit is broken, none of the load devices will work.

A parallel circuit has more than one path, so if one of the paths is broken, the other paths will continue to work.

A series-parallel circuit attaches some of the loads to a series circuit and others to parallel circuits. If the series circuit breaks, none of the loads will function, but if one of the parallel circuits break, that parallel circuit and the series circuit will stop working, but the other parallel circuits will continue to work.

 Links:

Make a battery!

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/science/physics-electricity-magnetism/parallel-electrical-circuit.php

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/science/physics-electricity-magnetism.php

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/science/physics-electricity-magnetism/magnetism.php

VOCABULARY

• Circuit. a closed loop of conductors through which charges can flow.

• Conductor. a substance through which electrical charges can easily flow.

• Current. a flow of electrical charges.

• Generator. a device for producing electrical current by moving a coil of wire in a magnetic field.

• Insulator. a material through which electric charges cannot move.

• Ion. an atom that has gained or lost one or more electrons and is thus a charged particle.

• Switch. a device that closes or opens a circuit, thereby allowing or preventing current flow.
• Voltage. the pressure behind the flow of electrons in a circuit.