Learning Blog: Science: Electricity: Different types of circuits

Types of Circuits

Closed circuit

An electric current can only flow if the circuit is closed or complete.
When the components of a circuit are joined to form a complete path for electric current to flow through, the circuit is called a closed circuit.
In a closed circuit, electric current flows from the battery, through the wires to the other electrical component(s) and back into the battery.
A circuit can only be complete when all the components are properly connected.
Electricity flows from the negative pole to the positive pole of a battery.

Open circuit

When the components of a circuit are not properly connected, there may be a break/gap in the circuit.
When that happens, electric current cannot pass through the gap. The path that the electric current flows through is broken and the circuit is an open circuit.

Series and Parallel circuits

A series circuit is a circuit with only one path for electricity to flow through.
If two bulbs are connected in a series and one of the bulbs is removed or is blown, the circuit will not work. This is because the circuit is open.
A parallel circuit has more than one path for electricity to flow through.
If two bulbs are connected in parallel, one bulb will work when the other is removed/blown.
A bulb will not light up if the metal casing and the metal tip are connected to the same pole of the battery. The bulb will only light up when the metal casing and the metal tip are connected to different poles of the battery.

Short circuit

(Short circuit is) A low-resistance, unintentional path, that bypasses part of a circuit. This can happen when two bare wires in a circuit touch each other. The part of the circuit bypassed by the short circuit ceases to function, and a large amount of current could start to flow. It could generate a lot of heat in the wires and cause a fire. As a safety measure, fuses and circuit breakers automatically open the circuit when excessive current is detected.

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