http://www.ck12.org Chapter 5. Energy
Q:If one light bulb burns out in this series circuit, how can you tell which bulb it is?
A:It may not be obvious, because neither bulb will light if one is burned out. You can tell which one it is only by
replacing first one bulb and then the other to see which replacement results in both bulbs lighting up.
Parallel Circuit
A circuit that has two loops is called aparallel circuit. A simple parallel circuit is sketched below. If one loop of a
parallel circuit is interrupted, current can still flow through the other loop. In the parallel circuit below, if one light
bulb burns out, the other light bulb will still work because current can bypass the burned-out bulb. The wiring in a
house consists of parallel circuits. You can see an animation of a parallel circuit at this URL: http://www.regentspr
ep.org/regents/physics/phys03/bparcir/default.htm