Can decorative pine trees be connected in series or parallel?

The question is simple, but it is not easy to answer. Christmas tree lights have a special feature that not everyone knows.

So Noel has come very close, many places are preparing for this special holiday by embarking on decorating pine trees. The decorative lights are probably the choice of many people when decorating the Christmas tree, this is a circuit of many light bulbs that can co-glow. However, especially when a light bulb is broken, it will not affect the remaining shadows in the circuit. So can you answer a very simple question, 'Is the pine lamp decorated in serial or parallel'?

What is serial and parallel?

You should not rush to answer but review the circuit theory that was previously studied. Perhaps this is quite basic knowledge that everyone knows, but the way of connecting serial and parallel bulbs has some important differences that we need to repeat.

Electrical circuit in series

The first is the way to connect it, the current has only one path in the closed circuit and when we remove a light bulb, the other one will not glow because the circuit is now open. We can have 10 to 20 light bulbs connected, but when a light bulb is broken, the whole system will stop working.

Electrical circuits in parallel

The way of parallelism has more advantages. As we can see in the diagram, the current follows two paths in different closed circuits. Therefore, when removing a light bulb, it does not affect the remaining light bulb.

So decorative lights are connected to the tree serial or parallel?

At this point, many of you probably have your answers, but stay calm and take a closer look. In fact, when we remove a light bulb from a decorative light, all other shadows are not glowing. There are also cases that half of the lights are not lit by using two wires.

When removing a light bulb in a decorative light, all other shadows are not glowing.

However, if a light bulb burns, the light bulb's hair is broken, the other bulbs can still operate normally. Normally the current passes through the light bulb's hair, causing it to heat up and glow. When broken hair also means the circuit is exposed.

When a light bulb burns, other bulbs can still operate normally

So how does a light bulb burn back without affecting other light bulbs? Is it because the way of decorating lights is parallel? But why, when removing a light bulb, the whole lamp is not working, this is the way to connect it.

Calm down a little, first the correct answer is the way to connect. However, the lights in the decorative lights have a small trick that causes a broken bulb to not affect other shadows.

Special metal wire clip connecting the two poles of the light bulb

Let's take a closer look at a light bulb. This is a black shadow that has been burnt and the hair has broken, but the lower part has a piece of metal wire connecting the two poles. This is why when a light bulb burns, it does not affect other shadows because this metal wire keeps the circuit closed.

However, we have some questions here. If this piece of metal is connected between the two poles, when the light bulb is operating normally, the current will not pass through the filament but pass through the metal, so the bulb cannot light.

And this is how it works. When the light bulb is operating normally, the current will pass through the filament and skip the metal section because it uses some special insulators when attaching to the two electrodes. When the filament burns, the circuit breaks and all bulbs are off. At this point the broken filament will have a very large voltage difference, creating an instantaneous voltage (about 120V) and it produces an electric field.

The electric field is large enough to cause 'electrical failure' and lose the insulation properties of some special materials. So the metal part connecting the two electrodes can conduct electricity to make the circuit work again.

It's coming Christmas 2017, you know? Let's see how to decorate the Christmas tree that we guide.