circuit diagrams

The ‘all-in-a-row’ circuit diagram convention for series and parallel circuits

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Circuit diagrams can be seen either as pictures or abstractions but it is clear that pupils often find it hard to recognise the circuits in the practical situation of real equipment. Moreover, Caillot found that students retain from their work with diagrams strong images rather than the principles they are intended to establish. The topological arrangement of a diagram or a drawing presents problems for pupils which are easily overlooked. It seems that pupils’ spatial abilities affect their use of circuit diagrams: they sometimes do not regard as identical several circuits, which, though identical, have been rotated so as to have a different spatial arrangement. […] Niedderer found that pupils, when asked whether a circuit diagram would ‘work’ in practice, more often judged symmetrical diagrams to be functioning than non-symmetric ones.

Driver et al. (1994): 124 [Emphases added]

For the reasons outlined by Driver and others above, I think it’s a good idea to vary the way that we present circuit diagrams to students when teaching electric circuits. If students always see circuit diagrams presented so that (say) the cell is at the ‘top’ and ‘facing’ a certain way; or that they are drawn so that they are symmetrical (which is an aesthetic rather that a scientific choice), then they may well incorrectly infer that these and other ‘accidental’ features of our circuit diagrams are the essential aspects that they should pay the most attention to.

One ‘shake it up’ strategy is to redraw a circuit diagram using the ‘all-in-a-row’ convention.

If you arrange the real components in the ‘all-in-a-row’ arrangement, then a standard digital voltmeter has, what is in my opinion a regrettably underused functionality, that will show:

  • ‘positive’ potential differences: that is to say, the energy added to the coulombs as they pass through a cell or the electromotive force; and
  • ‘negative’ potential differences: that is to say, the energy removed from each coulomb as they pass through a resistor; these can be usefully referred to as ‘potential drops’

This can be shown on circuit diagrams as shown below/

In other words, the difference between the potential difference across the cell (energy being transferred into the circuit from the chemical energy store of the cell) is explicitly distinguished from the potential difference across the resistor (energy being transferred from the resistor into the thermal energy store of the surroundings). The all-in-a-row convention neatly sidesteps a common misconception that the potential difference across a cell is equal to the potential difference across a resistor: they are not. While they may be numerically equal, they are different in sign, as a consequence of Kirchoff’s Second Law. As I have suggested before, I think that this misconception is due to the ‘hidden rotation‘ built into standard circuit diagrams.

Potential divider circuits and the all-in-a-row convention

Although I am normally a strong proponent of the ‘parallel first heresy‘, I’ll go with the flow of ‘series circuit first’ in this post.

Diagrams 2 and 3 in the sequence show that the energy supplied to the coulombs (+1.5 V or 1.5 joules per coulomb) by the cell is transferred from the coulombs as they pass through the double resistor combination. Assuming that R1 = R2 then, as diagram 4 shows, 0.75 joules will be transferred out of each coulomb as they pass through R1; as diagram 5 shows, 0.75 joules will be transferred out of each coulomb as they pass through R2.

Parallel circuits and the all-in-a-row convention

I’ve written about using the all-in-a-row convention to help explain current flow in parallel circuits here, so I will focus on understanding potential difference in parallel circuit in this post.

Again, diagrams 2 and 3 in the sequence show that the positive 3.0 V potential difference supplied by the cell is numerically equal (but opposite in sign) to the negative 3.0 V potential drop across the double resistor combination. It is worth bearing in mind that each coulomb passing through the cell gains 3.0 joules of energy from the chemical energy store of the cell. Diagrams 4 and 5 show that each coulomb passing through either R1 or R1 loses its entire 3.0 joules of energy as it passes through that resistor. The all-in-a-row convention is useful, I think, for showing that each coulomb passes through just one resistor as it makes a single journey around the circuit.

Acknowledgements

Circuit simulations from the excellent https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc/latest/circuit-construction-kit-dc_en.html

Circuit diagrams drawn using https://www.circuit-diagram.org/editor/

Reference

Driver, R., Squires, A., Rushworth, P., & Wood-Robinson, V. (1994). Making sense of secondary science: Research into children’s ideas. Routledge.

Circuit Diagrams: Lost in Rotation…?

e=mc2andallthat5 Comments

Is there a better way of presenting circuit diagrams to our students that will aid their understanding of potential difference?

I think that, possibly, there may be.

(Note: circuit diagrams produced using the excellent — and free! — web editor at https://www.circuit-diagram.org/.)

Old ways are the best ways…? (Spoiler: not always)

This is a very typical, conventional way of showing a simple circuit.

A simple circuit as usually presented

Now let’s measure the potential difference across the cell…

Measuring the potential difference across the cell

…and across the resistor.

Measuring the potential difference across the resistor

Using a standard school laboratory digital voltmeter and assuming a cell of emf 1.5 V and negligible internal resistance we would get a value of +1.5 volts for both positions.

Let me demonstrate this using the excellent — and free! — pHET circuit simulation website.

Simulation of measuring the p.d. across the cell and across the resistor

Indeed, one might argue with some very sound justification that both measurements are actually of the same potential difference and that there is no real difference between what we chose to call ‘the potential difference across the cell’ and ‘the potential difference across the resistor’.

Try another way…

But let’s consider drawing the circuit a different (but operationally identical) way:

The same circuit drawn ‘all-in-a-row’

What would happen if we measured the potential difference across the cell and the resistor as before…

Measuring the potential difference across the cell and the resistor in the new orientation
Simulation of measuring the p.d. across the cell and across the resistor in the new orientation

This time, we get a reading (same assumptions as before) of [positive] +1.5 volts of potential difference for the potential difference across the cell and [negative] -1.5 volts for the potential difference across the resistor.

This, at least to me, is a far more conceptually helpful result for student understanding. It implies that the charge carriers are gaining energy as they pass through the cell, but losing energy as they pass through the resistor.

Using the Coulomb Train Model of circuit behaviour, this could be shown like this:

+1.5 V of potential difference represented using the Coulomb Train Model
-1.5 V of potential difference represented using the Coulomb Train Model. (Note: for a single resistor circuit, the emerging coulomb would have zero energy.)

We can, of course, obtain a similar result for the conventional layout, but only at the cost of ‘crossing the leads’ — a sin as heinous as ‘crossing the beams’ for some students (assuming they have seen the original Ghostbusters movie).

Crossing the leads on a voltmeter

A Hidden Rotation?

The argument I am making is that the conventional way of drawing simple circuits involves an implicit and hidden rotation of 180 degrees in terms of which end of the resistor is at a more positive potential.

A hidden rotation…?

Of course, experienced physics learners and instructors take this ‘hidden rotation’ in their stride. It is an example of the ‘curse of knowledge’: because we feel that it is not confusing we fail to anticipate that novice learners could find it confusing. Wherever possible, we should seek to make whatever is implicit as explicit as we can.

Conclusion

A translation is, of course, a sliding transformation, rather than a circumrotation. Hence, I had to dispense with this post’s original title of ‘Circuit Diagrams: Lost in Translation’.

However, I do genuinely feel that some students understanding of circuits could be inadvertently ‘lost in rotation’ as argued above.

I hope my fellow physics teachers try introducing potential difference using the ‘all-in-row’ orientation shown.

The all-in=a-row orientation for circuit diagrams to help student understanding of potential difference

I would be fascinated to know if they feel its a helpful contribition to their teaching repetoire!