Resistance and Components

Resistance is a “Struggle”: Thinking of resistance as a physical obstacle that current has to “fight” through (which implies it loses speed), rather than a property that determines the rate of flow for the whole circuit.

Adding Resistors in Parallel Increases Resistance: Applying the “more is more” logic of series circuits to parallel ones, not realizing that adding a path decreases total resistance.

Distance Affects Brightness: The “Empirical Rule” that bulbs further away from the battery will be dimmer, regardless of the circuit type.

Short Circuits are “Ignored”: Believing that if a wire has no component on it, it doesn’t “count” or have any effect on the rest of the circuit.

The Switch “Creates” Electricity: Seeing the switch as the source of the energy rather than a gate that allows the existing system to move.