I feel extremely dumb for asking this, but hopefully someone can explain something that's always confused me.
My parents taught me the basics of DC electricity when I was extemely small, about 4 years old..... now I manage a RadioShack. What a coincidence. I got into the concepts of digital electronics when I was in highschool and college, yet I still have a lingering issue.
I've long been perplexed by some of the simpler characteristics of DC electricity. In particular, its characteristic of following the "path of least resistance". I get really hung up on this. It seems that if I connect two LEDs in parallel, one with a 10 ohm resistor and one with a 10000000 ohm resistor, the 1ohm should be brighter - AND IT IS! ... but the LED with the high resistance value still lights.
Ok, so lets compare this with an LED with its inherant resistance by adding another branch to the parallel circuit - still the same.
Yet now, when I finally add a simple short to ground, the circuit is dead - I think I understand why to a small degree. Basically both sides of the LEDs and resistors are becoming electrically common. The difference is that there's no resistor or component in the shorted circuit. But what about the small amount of resistance in a copper wire? Is this not enough to keep it from being a "short"?
As I said, I feel really stupid. What logic do I follow here? Part of my problem is that it is difficult to explain my confusion!
My parents taught me the basics of DC electricity when I was extemely small, about 4 years old..... now I manage a RadioShack. What a coincidence. I got into the concepts of digital electronics when I was in highschool and college, yet I still have a lingering issue.
I've long been perplexed by some of the simpler characteristics of DC electricity. In particular, its characteristic of following the "path of least resistance". I get really hung up on this. It seems that if I connect two LEDs in parallel, one with a 10 ohm resistor and one with a 10000000 ohm resistor, the 1ohm should be brighter - AND IT IS! ... but the LED with the high resistance value still lights.
Ok, so lets compare this with an LED with its inherant resistance by adding another branch to the parallel circuit - still the same.
Yet now, when I finally add a simple short to ground, the circuit is dead - I think I understand why to a small degree. Basically both sides of the LEDs and resistors are becoming electrically common. The difference is that there's no resistor or component in the shorted circuit. But what about the small amount of resistance in a copper wire? Is this not enough to keep it from being a "short"?
As I said, I feel really stupid. What logic do I follow here? Part of my problem is that it is difficult to explain my confusion!