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Somewhat OT electrical question

Sorry for the OT post but I have a question that has been bugging me for several years and as my understanding of elctricity and all it nuances is only slightly better than the 80 year-old neighbor back home who declined elctricity in her home 'cause she didn't want hot wires in her walls, I ask here.

It has to do with batteries and hooking them up in parallel or series. Now I haven't the foggiest as to which is which but ...

Please pardon pathetic ASCII art. In both cases you have 3 batteries. Let's asusme they are all AA 1.5 volts. (That's what is says on the label)

Case 1. The batteries are hooked up as below:

________ ________ _______ +________- +________- +_______- battery 1 battery 2 battery 3

The wires (or whatever) are hooked to the + of battery 1 and the - of batter

  1. This is a standard type of layout for a flashlight.

What is the difference betwixt this type of layout and

Case 2

  • + + | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - - -

where the + of all the batteries are connected and the negatives of all the batteries are connected.

Thanks a bunch

Reply to
Kevin
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Easy answer. Case 1 = 4.5V output Case 2 = 1.5V output

I have used case 2 when I wanted a lot of umph at the rated voltage of the batteries.

____________________ Bill Waller New Eagle, PA

snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net

Reply to
Bill Waller

The answer above is correct. Just to add to it, case 1 is a series connection and the voltages add, but the current does not. Case 2 is parallel connection and the current that can be delivered adds (Bill's umph) but the voltage does not add. This assumes that all the batteries are equal.

Reply to
Martin Rost

Series connection. Voltage is 3x that of a single battery, and current is the same as that of a single battery.

Parallel connection. Voltage is the same as that of a single battery, and current is 3x that of a single battery.

Current is the amount of electricity flowing, and voltage is the "pressure" behind it. An analogy to flowing water may be helpful:

small mountain stream = high voltage, low current Mississippi River = high current, low voltage Niagara Falls = high current *and* high voltage

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Reply to
Doug Miller

Just to add to the previous comments.

A battery is a collection of of stuff. I.E. "The doctor has me scheduled for a a battery of tests to figure out whats wrong". For example your typical

1.5V "thing" is actually an electrical cell, however practically everyone calls it a battery.

A car battery is 6 cells connected in series, the voltage of each cell adds to the others and you get 12 volts. Each cell is really big so you also get a lot of amperage.

Electrical current is measured several ways, the main two are:

  1. Voltage

How hard do the electrons want to move a.k.a. pressure; and

  1. Amperage

How many electrons go by, a.k.a. volume.

Different cells develope different voltages, for example:

  1. Lead acid - 2V
  2. Carbon - Zinc ( generic battery) 1.5V
  3. Nickel Cadmium ( NiCads) 1.2V

If you connect two car batteries in parrallel you still only have 12V but you have more current which is measured in Amperes.

Reply to
Sympatico News

Thanks to all the responses. My knowledge has been increased 3 fold (however the current, well, heh!

Reply to
Kevin

====================== Slight correction of terminology; Electrical current is measured in Amperes, Electrical potential is measured in Volts. Just mainly a semantics thing, but if you're talking to a tech, and mention current, he'll hear amps (or milliamps, microamps, depending on amount), and Voltage is the amount of push the electrons get. All these are mathmatically relatedby Ohm's law. Voltage is a function of current X resistance E=IR, where E is voltage, I is current, and R is resistance. Power is a function of voltage and current and Voltage,or P=IE, where P is power (Watts), I is current (Amps), and E is potential (Volts). Example; a device pulls 5 amps on a 120 Volt line = 600 Watts. If you know any 2 factors, you can calculate the third by plugging it into the formula. Hope this helps.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

Reply to
Ken Moon

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