What is the difference between a parallel circuit and a series circuit?

A parallel circuit and a series circuit are the two basic types of electric circuit that can be found in electrical devices.

In a parallel circuit, there are multiple pathways between the circuit’s beginning and end. As a result, since the current has more than one route to take, the circuit can still function if one path fails. This makes parallel circuits much more fail-resistant than series circuits which is why parallel circuits are common in everyday applications, such as household wiring. Regardless of how many different paths the circuit has, the total voltage stays the same, and all components of the circuit share the same common points. This set of common points is known as electrically common points. Every parallel circuit has two sets of them.

An example of a parallel circuit

A series circuit is a circuit in which there is only one path from the source through all of the loads and back to the source. This means that all of the current in the circuit must flow through all of the loads. One example of a series circuit is a string of old Christmas lights. There is only one path for the current to flow. Opening or breaking a series circuit such as this at any point in its path causes the entire circuit to "open" or stop operating. That's because the basic requirement for the circuit to operate a continuous, closed loop path is no longer met. This is the main disadvantage of a series circuit. If any one of the light bulbs or loads burns out or is removed, the entire circuit stops operating. Many of today's circuits are actually a combination of elements in series and parallel to minimize the inconvenience of a pure series circuit.

An example of a series circuit

In our textbook, the definitions of the circuits are as such:

series circuit - a circuit in which loads are connected one after another in a single path

parallel circuit - a circuit in which loads are connected side by side

Websites:

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_5/3.html

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_5/2.html

http://lansing.apogee.net/foe/fcspp.asp

http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/physics/phys03/bsercir/default.htm