Need help for a Phyics quiz, thanks guys!
Suppose you have a group of resistors, either in series or parallel. Let the total current into the group be I and the voltage across the group be V. Then the power dissapated by the group is P IV If the group is a series connection then the current in each resistor is the same as the group current but the voltage across each resister is different and the total power can be written as; P I(V1 + V2 + .) IV1 + IV2 + . but this is just the sum of the individual powers If the group is a parallel connection the voltage is the same on each but the current is different and the power could be written as; P (i1 + i2 + .)V i1V + i2V + but this is just the sum of the individual powers So the additive property of power is due to the additive property of voltage in a series circuit and the additive property of current in a parallel circuit. Another way of looking at it is; if several elements in a circuit are using a certain amount of energy per second then the total energy used per second is the sum, regardless of how they're configured. Total energy used is total energy used.
