Explain the best type of connection for the following parts within an electrical circuit: series or parallel. Provide reasons for your answers.

Question

for a 1.5 V batteries to power a 6.0 V electronic device

Answer 1

The key point about (ideal) connections in parallel is that the potential difference between the point where the parallel branches split off and the point where they come back together must be the same no matter which branch you take.  Therefore, if you put the batteries in parallel, their terminal voltages would have to equalize in an ideal situation (which, outside of an electrical engineering class, we are usually dealing with).

 

Because of this, putting batteries together in parallel does not build up their voltage in any way.  You would only ideally get the same voltage to deliver to the rest of the circuit as you would with only one battery in place.  If the circuit element requires six volts, hooking the batteries together in parallel will not provide enough voltage to run it.

 

However, if the batteries are hooked together in series, their voltages can add up.  This is provided they are hooked up so that the high potential terminal of each battery is connected to the low potential terminal of the next.  In that case each battery drives current in the same direction, and they add up in effect.

 

In this case, the total change in potential across all batteries can be thought of as stepping up or down in potential across each battery (this aspect is also used when implementing Kirchhoff's loop rule with multiple batteries, where stepping across a battery from minus to plus counts as a step up in potential, and crossing plus to minus counts as a step down).  Going across each battery is like taking another step up (or down, depending on which way you go) in potential.  So, four 1.5 V batteries hooked in series, with the positive terminal of each hooked to the negative terminal of the next, will add up to a total potential difference of 6 V.

 

If the batteries are hooked up positive-to-positive terminal, by the way, they will work against each other (because, going in one direction, you will step up in potential across one battery, then down across the next), and their voltages will cancel out as much as possible.

 

I apologize, in that if I could draw a diagram with this one, it would probably make the explanation clearer.  If you would like to meet online, just send me a message to let me know.  Also, we can talk about it some more here, if you like.  But, for the reasons above, the answer in this case should be series.

Answer 2

I would say parallel.  This is because the power source of the circuit is less than the voltage of the actual device.  Parallel circuits tend to control the flow of electrons by sending them to different loops of the circuit.  As opposed to series, it is only single loop.  In this case, you will need a resistor.

 

Despite the answer I am giving you, perhaps you are missing a few components of the circuit.