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6.1: Theory Overview

  • Page ID
    25858
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    A parallel circuit is defined by the fact that all components share two common nodes. The voltage is the same across all components and will equal the applied source voltage. The total supplied current may be found by dividing the voltage source by the equivalent parallel resistance. It may also be found by summing the currents in all of the branches. The current through any resistor branch may be found by dividing the source voltage by the resistor value. Consequently, the currents in a parallel circuit are inversely proportional to the associated resistances. An alternate technique to find a particular current is the current divider rule. For a two resistor circuit this states that the current through one resistor is equal to the total current times the ratio of the other resistor to the total resistance.


    This page titled 6.1: Theory Overview is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by James M. Fiore via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.