Series and Parallel bulbs

• 1 5-volt power supply
• 1 Resistor box (the R1, R2, and R3 resistors should be lableled - the silver components are capacitors - not used) **
• 1 3-bulb light box
• 1 Digital Multi-meter
• Assortment of red/black banana wires

Please use only the 5 volt source from the power supply. This will make the bulbs pretty dim in one of the configurations, but if we use the higher voltage, we risk blowing the bulbs in other sections!

Also, keep in mind that we are looking for LARGE differences between the brightness of the bulbs ... there might be minor differences based on the bulbs being slightly different. If you think the bulbs are getting "dimmer" as they go down the line in a series circuit .. try switching the power leads (to flow the current the other way) and see if you still notice the change.

Seeing the bulbs when set up in triple series ....

The upper image shows the bulbs as they might look with the room lights on (triple parallel on the left and triple series on the right). Notice that it appears as though the triple series bulbs are not lit up ... but they actually are.

For the triple series portion, you should temporarily turn off the room lights (use flashlights as necessary) - the bottom image shows the faint glow of the triple series bulbs.