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Resistors in Parallel - why the 1/R?

Zs
Hello, Genuinely, I hope this finds you well.


The electrical lessons which I am working on from home are going down well, despite my dodgy diagrams and rather plain English.  They have actually been rolled out to more people which I'm pleased about.  Anyway,  and after each one I get some comments or questions.


in the last one, I covered calculations for resistors.  You know the one for resistors in Parallel which is 1/R = 1/ value of resistor1 + 1/ value of resistor 2 +... and so on...?


Well, one of our ladies has suggested that it would be nice to know the derivation of the 1/R aspect, why it is divided into 1. I expect she already knows because she is a most interesting physicist and I have no doubt her maths is superb.  OMS will have met her.  Good question though. 


Truth is, I'm not sure and I have always rather taken it for granted as something I learned. Care to enlighten me? ...all I can think of is Kirchoff but I would love your advice if you have some time.


Thank you, stay well eh?  

Zs


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  • 0
    Thank you,  You have shed some light and I'll try to put that into an example. Love the quote and I shall walk around the empty house saying that until I am word perfect ;) 

    If you don't mind, I will pass the new explanation in front of you once I've got it down.


    Lady Physicist has come back with a photo of her notes on the subject.  I am sure it's perfect but I can't read her writing!


    Mapj - because we have to calculate all the parallels before treating everything as series, I too have never paid much attention to this.  To be honest, this was put away some time ago in my mental archive.  In taking the readers of these pages of mine back to basics I am doing the same to myself and rather enjoying it.


    BBC radio 4 tonight at 9.30   In Our Time is on the subject of Gauss.  I caught it this morning - fantastic.  I recommend. 


    Must go - today it's an easier one - Watts and kilowatt hours etc. 


    Thank you, Zs


    Struggling to post this reply - you might get several.
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  • 0
    Thank you,  You have shed some light and I'll try to put that into an example. Love the quote and I shall walk around the empty house saying that until I am word perfect ;) 

    If you don't mind, I will pass the new explanation in front of you once I've got it down.


    Lady Physicist has come back with a photo of her notes on the subject.  I am sure it's perfect but I can't read her writing!


    Mapj - because we have to calculate all the parallels before treating everything as series, I too have never paid much attention to this.  To be honest, this was put away some time ago in my mental archive.  In taking the readers of these pages of mine back to basics I am doing the same to myself and rather enjoying it.


    BBC radio 4 tonight at 9.30   In Our Time is on the subject of Gauss.  I caught it this morning - fantastic.  I recommend. 


    Must go - today it's an easier one - Watts and kilowatt hours etc. 


    Thank you, Zs


    Struggling to post this reply - you might get several.
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