Download Electron Shuffle

Electron Shuffle
Electricity can be explained using a basic illustration known as the electron
shuffle. The electron shuffle is used to exemplify what happens during electron flow (ie.
electricity). Though not perfectly complete, it does help to give one an idea of what is
transpiring. To begin with, we’ll start with a basic simple circuit:
Suppose that there are 8 coulombs (particles that carry energy) in a circuit. Each
of these coulombs would go through a source, such as a battery, and pick up energy.
They would then travel to a resistor, such as a light bulb, and give their energy to them.
Once this transition is made, the coulombs then return back to the battery to gain more
energy. The amount of energy that the coulombs pick up from the battery is called
voltage. The speed that the coulombs travel at is called amperage.
Now, again suppose that we added a second light bulb directly in line with the
first. When two or more resistors are lined up on the same circuit they are wired in
series. The electricity has to travel through one of the resistors before reaching the
second. This time, each of the coulombs drops off only half of their energy at each of the
two resistors. If there are three resistors, it drops off a third and so on. Unfortunately, if
there is a short or one of the bulbs burns out at the beginning of the circuit, the flow of
electricity stops and the sequential resistors do not receive any.
Fortunately, there is a way to counter this. Muahahaha! In order to avoid the
issue of losing power due to a bad resistor, one can wire the circuits in parallel. In a
parallel circuit, a single circuit is used as the basic circuit. However, instead of wiring
the resistors in series, pigtail the wire off of the main circuit before reaching the resistor
and connect it to the other resistor. Then, from the second one, rejoin the main circuit
after the original resistor. In this way, one can bypass the first resistor, so, in the chance
that it goes bad, the second one will still get power and will not be affected.