Parallel circuits are used throughout your home - because they allow current to keep flowing through various paths, even when it cannot flow through one path

Parallel circuits are used throughout your home - because they allow current to keep flowing through various paths, even when it cannot flow through one path.

Here are two examples of parallel circuits in your home.

1)Most times, the electrical outlets in a particular room will be on a single circuit, because the single circuit can usually handle the load of several devices. (It's rare that everything is running all at once.) If this was a series circuit, you would need to have something hooked to every outlet in order to turn a single device on.

2)Within a multi-bulb light, a parallel circuit ensures that when one bulb burns out, the others still stay lit. Otherwise, you'd have all of the bulbs go out - then figuring out which one is "out" is like figuring out which bulb has gone on a string of Christmas lights. Yikes!