Series VS Parallel Advantages/disadvantages.

[WRGKMC]

They key items you're missing here is here involves trigonometry. Voltage, Current and Resistance are involved. DC resistance and AC impedance are "Not" the same thing. One is static and one is reactive.

 

Straight resistance doesn't change its value whether AC or DC is flowing through the component.

A coil like in a speaker has some DC resistance with both AC and DC voltages see. But AC sees increased resistance as the Frequency increases. This Resistance is magnetic in nature. As you pass a change through a coil it resists change as the field increases. When you remove the voltage or change polarity like in AC, the field collapses adding additional voltage back into the wire.

 

Your old spark coils in automobiles are an example of this. When the points broke the coils contact, the coils collapsed and a spark is generated as the magnetic fields collapse and the voltage is regenerated back into the wires. With speakers you have a resistance to the rise of the field and an increase as it reverses polarity. Then it resists again on the negative going cycle and again increases as that field reverses. This is where you get into something called hyper physics.

 

Try Googling up the phrase ELI the ICE man. Voltage leads current in and inductor circuit and Current leads voltage in a capacitive circuit. It will set you up with understanding AC laws in physics. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/phase.html It can be a bit tough to wrap your head around at first but it might at least give you a peak into the science.

 

Also Google up the left and Right hand Rules. This will explain how magnetic fields work in wires and coils. http://www.electricaleasy.com/2014/03/flemings-left-and-right-hand-rule.html

 

When dealing coil and caps that cause phase changes we call the AC resistance "Impedance" not resistance. What screws up many is they are both a form of resistance to Current flow, but with amps you have constantly changing frequencies and bi directional current flow so you have constantly changing resistance. As the AC rises you have resistance in one direction, as the signal reverses you have resistance in another direction.

 

There's many other false assumptions you have here, like losses. Wire losses is based on "current resistance". Current is what does the work, its the actual movement of electrons from one atom to another. Because wire and electronic components contain impurities they generates heat as they flow. Current is the other side of the coin you're not seeing.

 

DC has more loss over distance because the voltage and current is fixed. When you increase voltage you also increase current. More current means more loss due to heat. You cant increase current and lower voltage or vice versa like you can in an AC circuit.

 

With an AC circuit you can use a transformer to step up a low voltage to a very high voltage. In the process, the current does just the opposite. Voltage goes up > Current goes down inversely.

 

Current is what causes losses. If you reduce the current way down and the voltage way up you can transmit AC voltage or signals over long distances with minimal losses. Those High Voltage Towers you see driving around bring voltage from the power plants over long distances to various towns. They then use another transformer to convert the high Voltage low current to High current low voltage. This way you have current (horsepower) to do the hard work.

 

Your Mic cables work this way too. Inside the mics you have a step up transformer. Inside your mixer you have a step down transformer. What passes over the cable is High voltage low current so you have minimal fidelity losses by the time it gets to the mixer. They do this with some power amps too using 70V transformer at each end. This way the wire itself isn't acting like a big resistor for the current.

 

 

You are 100% wrong about series vs parallel by the way. You simply don't understand that in a parallel circuit the voltage stays the same for both devices and the current divides. In a series circuits circuit the current is constant and the voltage divides.

 

Again, its two sides of the same coin and you just aren't taking into consideration the equal and opposite reactions of current vs voltage.

[WRGKMC]

No, there is no "first driver." In a series circuit, the current flows through both drivers equally or not at all.

 

Its also alternating bi directionally. Its like stocking Marbles in a cardboard tube and rocking it back and forth.

As the marbles move in one direction say the left, the empty space moves in the opposite direction to the right. Then when you tilt the tube in the opposite direction the marbles move right and holes move left.

 

There is no first or second in either AC or DC electronics if you understand what's going on atomically. Electrons move from orbit to orbit because different metals can change the valance if electron's. The electrons simply change orbits leaving a space behind moving in the opposite direction.

 

BJM326 Take a look at hole theory works You have to remember this stuff occurs at the speed of light too.

 

Wiki . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_hole Thay have actually taken pictures of electrons moving through materials like silicone using an electron microscope so all of this is proven fact now. Its actually how they got computer chips to run so fast. They were able to see what different impurities do to the electrons and eventually refine them out.

 

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/apr/12/silicon-atoms-seen-dancing-in-graphene

 

 

 

 

[bjm362]

 

Its also alternating bi directionally. Its like stocking Marbles in a cardboard tube and rocking it back and forth.

As the marbles move in one direction say the left, the empty space moves in the opposite direction to the right. Then when you tilt the tube in the opposite direction the marbles move right and holes move left.

 

There is no first or second in either AC or DC electronics if you understand what's going on atomically. Electrons move from orbit to orbit because different metals can change the valance if electron's. The electrons simply change orbits leaving a space behind moving in the opposite direction.

 

BJM326 Take a look at hole theory works You have to remember this stuff occurs at the speed of light too.

 

Wiki . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_hole Thay have actually taken pictures of electrons moving through materials like silicone using an electron microscope so all of this is proven fact now. Its actually how they got computer chips to run so fast. They were able to see what different impurities do to the electrons and eventually refine them out.

 

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/...ng-in-graphene

 

 

 

 

Interesting. This could also be an interesting discussion. I am going to state how I understand both from theory that was taught when I was young, through lifes experience, as well as one small change in recent technological discoveries.

Electricity flows from negative to positive.

In AC current it alternates. In DC it modulates, but travels in one direction. Therefore there is a first component.

That is how theory was taught when this old man was a kid. My life's experience supports that (The lightbulb example from earlier was real life.)

The only thing that I have seen ACTUAL evidence of to change how this was taught was super high speed filming of lightning strikes. There actually is a positive energy surge traveling the other . However it is minuscule in comparison to the negative energy surge it takes to make that happen.

 

Any tech can tell you there is a first component to be damaged in a circuit.......

 

Next I will look at your links shortly to see if they turn my world upside down......

[onelife]

Electrons travel from negative to positive which is the convention used to describe the physical workings of vacuum tubes.

 

The common modern convention is that electric current flows from positive to negative (the holes that WRGKMC described above).

 

Either way, the theory (and it is still just a theory that nobody has been able to prove wrong) holds and can be used to explain and design functional electronic circuits.

[bjm362]

I have to add that it may be a few days before I get to go over those links. I am looking forward to it as this the benefit of this kind of conversation. Getting to learn something. Tonight I have practice/song learning and arrangements. Tomorrow night I have a gig and Saturday I have a rehearsal....

[isaac42]

Interesting. This could also be an interesting discussion. I am going to state how I understand both from theory that was taught when I was young, through lifes experience, as well as one small change in recent technological discoveries.

Electricity flows from negative to positive.

In AC current it alternates. In DC it modulates, but travels in one direction. Therefore there is a first component.

That is how theory was taught when this old man was a kid. My life's experience supports that (The lightbulb example from earlier was real life.)

The only thing that I have seen ACTUAL evidence of to change how this was taught was super high speed filming of lightning strikes. There actually is a positive energy surge traveling the other . However it is minuscule in comparison to the negative energy surge it takes to make that happen.

 

Any tech can tell you there is a first component to be damaged in a circuit.......

 

Next I will look at your links shortly to see if they turn my world upside down......

No, there is no "first component." Sure, there is a first component to be damaged, if damage occurs, but it isn't the first component in the circuit. Whether DC or AC, current flows through the entire circuit at the same time, or it doesn't flow at all. I'm telling you this, and I am a technician.

[bjm362]

No, there is no "first component." Sure, there is a first component to be damaged, if damage occurs, but it isn't the first component in the circuit. Whether DC or AC, current flows through the entire circuit at the same time, or it doesn't flow at all. I'm telling you this, and I am a technician.

 

By now you know that even if I disagree with you I am willing to openly and honestly look at your viewpoint. I still want to watch and take a good look at the links before going to far into this. I feel like that is only fair.

I do want to state that I believe there is a paradox involved here. A paradox that is going to leave your last statement both true and untrue.

I just had a few minutes to check on this, more later...

Current flows the entire circuit or does not flow at all. A surge may be a part of that current and though traveling at lightspeed may not complete the circuit path before it is stopped.....

[WRGKMC]

I have a college degree in electronics so believe me I don't make this stuff up. You need a good understanding of what electricity is before you can grasp why things work the way they do.

 

Allot of armatures are taught the water flow method analogy of learning electronic circuits as a short cut but you must realise that's simply an analogy which has many flaws. You can associate water Pressure being voltage and current being water passing through a pipe and a valve being a resistor but electricity is "not" water. It doesn't start flowing into one end of a pipe and the first water in is the first water out.

 

Electricity from an engineers perspective is different. You use those old analogies that date back centuries when people really didn't know what electricity was to get a student up to a certain education level. From there you have to show them what's on the other side of the curtain and tie it together on an atomic level.

 

In electricity you have both negative and positive current flow going on at the same time. You have negative electrons flowing from the negative terminal to the positive terminal and you have Holes for those electrons flowing from the positive terminal. They are both equal and opposite in "potential' (a key word).

 

The way it was explained to me some 40 years ago - you have students sitting in a row of desks with the front chair open. The student in the second desk moves to the first desk - (he is an electron that has left the orbit of his atom and moved to the next atom) - The empty desk is now in second place. No one is sitting there but it has a potential never the less.

 

Next the person in the third seat moves to the second seat - and the empty desk is now in the third row. Then the next guy moves up and the empty desk again moves towards the back until you have an empty desk at the back of the class. This is how electricity move from battery terminal to terminal. Electrons in one direction, holes in the other direction.

 

AC is simple reversing the direction of electrons and holes at a specific frequency. Electric passes through wire at 299,792,458 meters per second so that empty desk moves from front to back nearly instantaneously. If the AC signal is say 20,000hz the speed of electrons in either direction is nearly 15,000 times faster than a single full cycle or 7500 times faster then a half cycle that then reverses direction and makes the electrons and holes reverse directions.

 

 

If you are used to seeing only positive current flow its hard to understand simple things like why batteries make current flow and how generators generate electricity. The ability to understand electronics in even more complex circuits is going to be even more severely handicapped. This is why a formal education is usually needed once you get past those basic concepts your taught that later become major stumbling blocks in advancing beyond the basics. You have to be shown how things work so you don't get trapped into believing everything is highly simplistic and superficial.

 

One mental image that's helped me with this is this. Think of a car driving east at 1000 miles and hour. The earth spins to the west at 1000 miles an hour. To the guy in the car he's moving like a rocket.

 

If you are sitting from the engineers viewpoint from outer space and look down at that car. Its standing still and its the earth that's spinning. The forward motion matches the movement of the ground going in the opposite direction. Balance and counter balance is always the key. Is the road moving, is the car moving. We know the earth spins so the answer is it takes energy to counter gravity pulling us along with the ground.

 

If you get that one - here's another fun one to ponder. We spend a lifetime being told gravity pulls us down to the earth. What if it really pushes us down instead of pulling? According to Einstein's theory that has been proven, its really both.

 

These are the kinds of concepts you learn with higher education. You have to learn the pull before you learn the push so you can understand its both.

 

I used to work with allot of great engineers as a tech and they'd always be coaching me in learning how they approach problems. I had a job writing electronics training and service manuals and also teaching doing technical support. I used to have to teach this kind of stuff on a daily basis to young techs just getting in the business. Some could grasp it and some couldn't. One thing you do learn is there are endless ways of teaching the same information. If a student doesn't visualize how things work using one method you simply substitute another method which they can associate with better so they can visualize what's really going on with that invisible force we take for granted on a daily basis.

[bjm362]

I just re read some of this, and I am glad I did as I had missed one of WRGKMC's comments. I felt like I should express that I saw a great deal of excellence in his reply.

I also do see quite a bit of difference in what theory I was taught as a youth and what is currently being taught.

I have seen at least one example of the positive flow, which when I was young we were told did not occur. Electricity we were told ONLY flowed from negative to positive.

 

I do feel like I have a broader view as a result of this conversation and appreciate all participants.

[Belva]

Guys, I've been down this road before. My ears tell me to always parallel rather than series, when possible. I don't know what it is MY ears react to, but that sums it up. All the fancy schmancy ohm's law interpretations are great for fixing your boat trailer's lights. When it comes to your ears, well...............duh, ain't rocket surgery. Do what YOUR EARS tell you is right. Use the 'guidelines' to keep from blowin' sheeit up.

[onelife]

...

Do what YOUR EARS tell you is right. Use the 'guidelines' to keep from blowin' sheeit up.