Calculating Resistance, Current, Power Dissipation, and Power Output: Analysis of a Parallel Circuit

The total resistance for a parallel combination of resistors is found using the equation below. Entering known values gives

Thus,

(Note that in these calculations, each intermediate answer is shown with an extra digit.)

We must invert this to find the total resistance $R_{\text{p}}$. This yields

The total resistance with the correct number of significant digits is $R_{\text{p}}=0\text{.}\text{804}\Omega .$

$R_{\text{p}}$ is, as predicted, less than the smallest individual resistance.

The total current can be found from Ohm’s law, substituting $R_{\text{p}}$ for the total resistance. This gives

Current $I$ for each device is much larger than for the same devices connected in series (see the previous example). A circuit with parallel connections has a smaller total resistance than the resistors connected in series.

The individual currents are easily calculated from Ohm’s law, since each resistor gets the full voltage. Thus,

Similarly,

and

The total current is the sum of the individual currents:

This is consistent with conservation of charge.

The power dissipated by each resistor can be found using any of the equations relating power to current, voltage, and resistance, since all three are known. Let us use $P=\frac{V^2}{R}$, since each resistor gets full voltage. Thus,

Similarly,

and

The power dissipated by each resistor is considerably higher in parallel than when connected in series to the same voltage source.

The total power can also be calculated in several ways. Choosing $P=\text{IV}$, and entering the total current, yields

Total power dissipated by the resistors is also 179 W:

This is consistent with the law of conservation of energy.

Note that both the currents and powers in parallel connections are greater than for the same devices in series.