A lab sheet reads: 'Set up a cell, a switch, and a lamp in one loop, and measure the voltage across the lamp.' Before anyone touches a wire, they draw the circuit. Your job: turn a written description into a diagram.
Take the description one component at a time. Draw the source first: a cell, on the left of the loop. Add each loop component in the order the description gives, joined by straight wires into one loop. Check the loop closes: every wire end meets another.
The loop first: cell, switch, lamp, closed all the way around.
Meters go in last. A voltmeter sits across its component: its two leads join the component's two ends.
The voltmeter joins the lamp's two ends: across, never in the loop.
You must draw a voltmeter to read a resistor's voltage. Where does it go?
An ammeter sits in the loop, in line with the other components.
The sheet adds: 'also measure the current through the lamp.' Where does the new ammeter go?
An ammeter measures the current through a point in the loop.
So it sits in the loop, in line with the lamp.
The ammeter is drawn in the loop, in line with the lamp, never across anything.
The ammeter sits in the loop, in line with the lamp.
You must draw an ammeter to read a lamp's current. Where does it go?
The build order: source first, then the loop components in the description's order, the loop closed, meters last.
On paper, draw a circuit diagram from this description: a battery, a resistor, and a lamp in one loop, with an ammeter in the loop. Use standard symbols, then select Continue to compare your drawing with the model answer.
The model answer. Check your drawing: a battery symbol of two long-and-short line pairs; a resistor drawn as a plain rectangle and a lamp drawn as a circle with a cross; the ammeter, a circle with the letter A, drawn in the loop, in line with the components; one complete, closed loop, every wire end meeting another. Any order around the loop is correct.
Your turn
On paper, draw a circuit diagram from this description: a cell, a switch, and two lamps in one loop, with a voltmeter across the first lamp. Use standard symbols, then select Continue to compare your drawing with the model answer.
The model answer. Check your drawing: a cell symbol of one long-and-short line pair; a switch and two lamps in one closed loop; the voltmeter across the first lamp, its two leads joined to that lamp's two ends; the voltmeter outside the main loop, never drawn in line with the other components.
Which written description matches the diagram?
A sheet reads: 'a cell, a lamp, and an ammeter reading the lamp's current, all in one loop.' Which plan draws it correctly?