hi Chips,
In may not be rocket science to you or I, but in tutoring students I have found that sometimes a student can get a mental block on a simple aspect of a problem.
I have found the way that works for me, in getting a student thru a mind block, is to carefully breakdown a problem in to simple steps and work with him until he gets the Eureka moment.

Telling a student its not rocket science will not help him understand.

E

 

hi Chips,
In may not be rocket science to you or I, but in tutoring students I have found that sometimes a student can get a mental block on a simple aspect of a problem.
I have found the way that works for me, in getting a student thru a mind block, is to carefully breakdown a problem in to simple steps and work with him until he gets the Eureka moment.

Telling a student its not rocket science will not help him understand.

E

I agree. Yes, it has been apparent that the TS was struggling with recognizing series vs. parallel resistors, but it only became apparent WHY when enough probing elicited a remark that indicated the false assumption that they had to be one or the other. It's not that unreasonable for a student that has only seen situations that were one or the other to draw the false conclusion that those are the only two possibilities.

So the issue wasn't that the TS couldn't recognize two resistors that are in parallel as being in parallel, it was that they were also using the framework that said that a viable way of determining whether two resistors were in parallel was to establish that they weren't in series with no need to examine them any further.

Once the probing revealed that, it was corrected almost immediately and I think the TS quickly understood what they were doing wrong and is in a much stronger position to do better. Now it's on to the next round, if needed.

 

Yes, sorry about that. I added my last comment in frustration. My bad.

 

Yes, I had students in Year II university physics curriculum who could not grasp the difference between series and parallel. These were just abstract words to them as if they were words from a foreign language.

 

In this circuit, which resistors are in series and which are in parallel?

 

In this circuit, which resistors are in series and which are in parallel?View attachment 221457

Aha! A trick question!

Arthur Kennelly (of Kennelly-Heaviside layer fame) showed how to solve networks like this in 1899: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-Δ_transform

 

Aha! A trick question!

Arthur Kennelly (of Kennelly-Heaviside layer fame) showed how to solve networks like this in 1899: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-Δ_transform

These are beyond the scope of where the TS is right now. Let's let them focus on learning what is relevant to where they are at this point.

 

These are beyond the scope of where the TS is right now. Let's let them focus on learning what is relevant to where they are at this point.

I doubt that the TS will have his focus seriously diverted by a simple illustration of something you said in post #85: " Resistors may be connected in a way such that they are neither (in series or in parallel). "

 

In this circuit, which resistors are in series and which are in parallel?

View attachment 221457

Hello. In this circuit i have to do the "triangle-star" transformation. For example R1, R2, R3 are a triangle, and R3 R4 R5 are another. I have to procced to one transformation and then see what i have. I think i have no doubts in that. My doubt was really only telling the series and parallel. Thank you.

 

Hello. In this circuit i have to do the "triangle-star" transformation. For example R1, R2, R3 are a triangle, and R3 R4 R5 are another. I have to procced to one transformation and then see what i have. I think i have no doubts in that. My doubt was really only telling the series and parallel. Thank you.

I am not asking you to do any transformation. I am asking if you can visually tell which resistors are in series and which are in parallel.

Revisit all of your previous exercises. By visual inspection, identify which resistors are in series and which resistors are in parallel. This is an exercise for yourself to be certain you can recognize these two situations.

Start with these and work your way to more complex configurations.