Help - Series Circuit

Thread Starter

Magic

Joined Apr 16, 2008
2
In a series circuit, if you have 2 light bulbs attached, and then one light bulb burns out, will the other light bulb remain lit?

I thought the answer would be yes, because the light bulb is still screwed in and the contact point is still making contact. I thought you would have to unscrew the light bulb to break the contact and make the other light bulb go out.

If this isn't accurate, does it have something to do with the filament wire in the light bulb being burnt out, thereby breaking the complete circuit?
 

Caveman

Joined Apr 15, 2008
471
Magic,

You should have asked this in your own thread.

If you have two light bulbs in series, and one goes out, it no longer conducts current. Therefore, the other one goes out because it has no current as well. You got it right that the filament breaks the circuit.


Got it?
 

Thread Starter

Magic

Joined Apr 16, 2008
2
Thanks Caveman for the answer. So, it doesn't matter if it is the 1st or 4th light bulb that burns out in a series circuit - ALL the other light bulbs would go out too?

Thanks thingmaker3 for moving my post where it belongs!!! I am new at this...
 

recca02

Joined Apr 2, 2007
1,212
Any breakage in continuity of a loop means no current will flow in that loop.
Breaking of filament will means an open circuit.

Perhaps there might be negligible or no current due to capacitance, there might even be an arc to maintain the current but these happen at large values of voltages (in KV).
 

Caveman

Joined Apr 15, 2008
471
Magic, this circuit is so easily built and tested that you should do just that. Get some low voltage bulbs, some wire and a couple of D cells and play with it. It's the best way to learn.
 

thingmaker3

Joined May 16, 2005
5,083
The old style Christmas lights were incandescent bulbs in series. When one burned out, we had to replace bulbs one at a time until we found the bad one.
 
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