Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles The simplest electric circuit is a light bulb and a battery. The battery creates a force pushing the charged particles in the wire, causing them to flow in a loop around the circuit. The number of charged particles that pass by each second is what we refer to as the current. The charged particles flow through the light bulb because the battery causes them to have a higher potential energy on one side of the light bulb than the other. This is similar to how objects at higher elevations have a higher gravitational potential energy. This potential energy is what we refer to as voltage. If we visualize the potential energy as boxes that are attached to the charged particles, then we will see that this energy is converted into light as the particles pass through the bulb. The charged particles regain their potential energy as they move through the battery, which pushes the charged particles to the higher potential. When the energy inside the battery is depleted, the battery will no longer be able to create this potential energy which we call voltage. A battery that has not yet been depleted ensures that the voltage between its two terminals is always at a specific value. If we place several batteries with the same voltage together in parallel, then this will result in more energy that is stored, and this will give us more time before the battery is depleted. If we instead place these batteries in series, this will cause their voltages to add, resulting in a much higher potential energy for each charged particle. A higher voltage across the light bulb means that a higher current will pass through it. This will cause far more light to be emitted by the light bulb, but it will also mean that the energy in the batteries will be depleted much faster. Much more detailed information about voltage, current, and electric circuits is available in the other videos on this channel.
B1 US potential energy battery energy bulb voltage charged Battery Energy and Power 36 4 Amy.Lin posted on 2021/01/06 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary