Circuit Symbols and Circuit Diagrams

Circuit Symbols and Circuit Diagrams

Electric circuits, whether simple or complex, can be described in a variety of ways. An electric circuit is commonly described with mere words. Saying something like "A light bulb is connected to a D-cell" is a sufficient amount of words to describe a simple circuit.








A final means of describing an electric circuit is by use of conventional circuit symbols to provide a schematic diagram of the circuit and its components. Some circuit symbols used in schematic diagrams are shown below.




A single cell or other power source is represented by a long and a short parallel line. A collection of cells or battery is represented by a collection of long and short parallel lines. In both cases, the long line is representative of the positive terminal of the energy source and the short line represents the negative terminal. A straight line is used to represent a connecting wire between any two components of the circuit. An electrical device which offers resistance to the flow of charge is generically referred to as a resistor and is represented by a zigzag line. An open switch is generally represented by providing a break in a straight line by lifting a portion of the line upward at a diagonal. These circuit symbols will be frequently used throughout the remainder as electric circuits are represented by schematic diagrams. It will be important to either memorize these symbols or to refer to this short listing frequently until you become accustomed to their use.

Example

Description with Words: Three D-cells are placed in a battery pack to power a circuit containing three light bulbs.


Using the verbal description, one can acquire a mental picture of the circuit being described. But this time, the connections of light bulbs is done in a manner such that there is a point on the circuit where the wires branch off from each other. The branching location is referred to as a node. Each light bulb is placed in its own separate branch. These branch wires eventually connect to each other to form a second node. A single wire is used to connect this second node to the negative terminal of the battery.

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