Trace the Loop, Compare the Two Ends

You'll learnto decide whether anything flows by tracing a complete path, to ask which loop a break belongs to, and to settle a short circuit by comparing the potentials at an element's two ends.

A bulb with one wire to the battery does not light, no matter how much charge reaches it. A bulb with a plain wire laid across it goes out while its neighbour gets brighter. Eleven short steps; press Next for each one.

11 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · TRACE THE PATH · WHICH LOOP · COMPARE THE ENDS · v2

a complete path, or nothing flows · a short makes two ends one node

Before you start

What you're looking at

Circuits drawn as a rectangle with a battery on the left. Bulbs sit along the top wire, in series, or on vertical branches, in parallel.

The question

When something is broken or added, which elements still carry current?

Step 1 / 11