Circuits
Putting electricity to work all over the world
Now that we’ve explained where electricity comes from, it’s time to look at some of the work it can do for us. Electricity can’t do much work without circuits as these provide a path for the electricity to flow around. Circuits include devices such as resistors, which control the flow of voltage, or difference in electrical charge, and capacitors, which store electrical charge and come in one of two types: series and parallel.
DID YOU KNOW? Edison saw Tesla’s system as a threat to his DC supply and spread stories that it wasn’t safe
Parallel circuits
In a parallel circuit there is more than one pathway between its beginning and end. Since the electricity has more than one route to take, the circuit can still function should one component fail. This means that parallel circuits are much less prone to failure than the series variety. For this reason parallel circuits are the kind you will find in most everyday applications such as domestic appliances and household wiring.