Need To Know Board: Experiment #1

Design and describe/explain a circuit diagram to show how you would wire all of the lights and appliances (outlets) on one floor of your house.  This should include an investigation of how much power (wattage) each light and appliance uses to determine the total electrical load required.

1) What do I think I know?

• A switch is an on/off. It opens or closes a circuit.

• There are positive and negative charges in electricity and magnetism.

• A circuit needs to be unbroken for electricity to flow.

• Power in electricity is measured in watts.

• Fluorescent lights are more efficient than incandescent.

• Copper can conduct electricity well. Water- and also humans- are conductors.

• Wood are rubber are efficient in stopping energy flow.

• You can use acidic fruits like lemons to turn on a light bulb.

• You can not use a series circuit for both light bulbs to be equally bright; you must use parallel circuits.

2) Questions to ask

• What do you call different types of circuits?

• What are the components of a circuit? 

• How do you build a circuit?

• How much power/wattage is required to light one floor of a house?

• How does the fuse work?

3) Topics to explore

• Wattage

• Conductors

• Voltage

• Battery

• Load/Light Bulb

• Control Device/Switch

• Connecting Wires