A taste of parallel

Every circuit so far has been a single loop — a series circuit, one path for the current to follow. But there’s another fundamental way to wire things: let two or more components share the same two connection points, each sitting on its own branch. That side-by-side arrangement is a parallel connection.

The headline difference: in parallel, every branch gets the full supply voltage, and the branches act independently. Picture a river splitting into several channels that rejoin downstream — each channel carries its own flow, and damming one doesn’t stop the others.

That independence is exactly why your home’s lights are wired in parallel: each bulb gets the full mains voltage, and one bulb burning out leaves the rest happily glowing. If they were in series, a single dead bulb would darken the whole house — like old-fashioned fairy lights.