Electric Circuits Further Explored

The study of electrical circuits is essential to understanding the technology that uses electricity in the real-world. In this section we will focus on revising content from the previous lessons and extending our understanding of the internal structure of a battery/cell and how this influences what you already know about circuits.

Aims and Objectives

Series and parallel networks of resistors:

• Understanding of Ohm's Law.
• The meaning of conservation of charge and energy for different types of circuits.
• Calculations done using series and parallel circuits.
• Solve problems involving current, voltage and resistance for circuits.

Batteries and internal resistance:

• State that a real battery has internal resistance.
• Definition of a load.
• Do experiments of finding the internal resistance of a battery.
• Do calculations by using circuits with batteries with internal resistance.

Evaluating internal resistance in circuits:

• Solve circuit problems using batteries with internal resistance with series, parallel and series-parallel circuits.

Extension: Wheatstone Bridge:

• Definition of a Wheatstone Bridge.
• Solve problems concerning the Wheatstone Bridge.