Series circuit (1)

The circuits you have been looking at so far are called series circuits. In a series circuit, a wire first connects from either the positive or negative terminal of a battery to a component (battery, bulb or buzzer etc.) From the first component, another wire connects to the next component in the circuit. This pattern repeats for all the other components in the circuit. A wire then connects from the last component in the circuit to the other end of the battery.

Electricity flows from the battery, along the first wire, through the first component, through the next wire and so on until it reaches the battery again.

The advantages of a series circuit are:

• It is simple
• It is quicker to put together
• It requires less wire than a parallel circuit

The disadvantages of a series circuit are:

• The bulbs cannot be switched on and off one at a time
• If one bulb is removed, the others stop working

Make a series circuit to light up all three bulbs.