How would you go about doing this lab without trial and error?: I am asking how

Question

How would you go about doing this lab without trial and error?: I am asking how you would do it assuming you obtained the total resistance. If you have 14 resistors its going to be hard to tell which are in series and which are parallel. Is there a way of doing that by just looking at resistance? Or do you need to look at the current through every resistor and the voltage?

You will be supplied with two or three different black boxes, consisting of series and parallel combinations of four to fourteen resistors ( all have a resistance of 30 ohms). Using an ohmeter, your mission is to apply your knowledge of series and parallel combinations of resistors to determine the unknown arranement of resistors inside the black box.

Explanation / Answer

Not exactly, you would have to do trial and error with the measurements.

Using the properties of series and parallel resistors you can guess the arrangement of the resistors.

When the resistors are in series the effective resistance is greater than the initial resistance, while when the two resistors are in parallel the effective resistance is less than the least resistance present.

So, when you measure current and voltage through the resistors, you can use the properties that; potential remains same when the resistors are in parallel while current remains same when the resistors are in series to determine their arrangement.

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