Two, 100 Ohm resistors are connected in parallel to a 100 V power supply. You add two more 100 Ohm resistors in parallel to the first two. What are the voltages across the new resistors?

100 V

200 V

20 V

50 V

1 answer

When two 100 Ohm resistors are connected in parallel, we first need to find the equivalent resistance of the first two resistors. The formula for the equivalent resistance (\(R_{eq}\)) of resistors in parallel is given by:

\[ \frac{1}{R_{eq}} = \frac{1}{R_1} + \frac{1}{R_2} \]

For the first two 100 Ohm resistors:

\[ \frac{1}{R_{eq}} = \frac{1}{100} + \frac{1}{100} = \frac{2}{100} = \frac{1}{50} \]

Thus:

\[ R_{eq} = 50 , \text{Ohm} \]

When these two resistors are connected to a 100 V power supply, the voltage across each resistor remains the same as the power supply voltage (100 V) because they are in parallel. Both resistors will have 100 V across them.

Now, when you add two more 100 Ohm resistors in parallel with these, the total equivalent resistance will be recalculated. The new total resistance is determined as follows:

The equivalent resistance of the second pair of 100 Ohm resistors is also:

\[ \frac{1}{R_{eq2}} = \frac{1}{100} + \frac{1}{100} = \frac{2}{100} = \frac{1}{50} \]

So, \(R_{eq2} = 50 , \text{Ohm}\) for the second pair as well.

Now, we can find the new total equivalent resistance of the four resistors:

\[ \frac{1}{R_{total}} = \frac{1}{R_{eq1}} + \frac{1}{R_{eq2}} = \frac{1}{50} + \frac{1}{50} = \frac{2}{50} = \frac{1}{25} \]

Thus,

\[ R_{total} = 25 , \text{Ohm} \]

Since the power supply is still 100 V, the voltage across each of the original and the new sets of resistors remains at 100 V due to them all being in parallel. Therefore, the voltage across the new resistors, like the first two, is:

\[ \text{Voltage across the new resistors} = 100 , V \]

Hence, the answer is 100 V.