I'm totally confused and this is due Monday-

Question

We're dealing with electrical circuits and I have to construct a circuit with resistors of 10 Ohms, 20 Ohms, 30 Ohms and 20 Ohms. The total resistance has to be 42 Ohms-Can someone direct me how to even begin to draw this-I know Parallel resistors you add sum and take the reciprocal for total and series you had them together but where do I start with this-Please help_ I'm stuck and its the weekend and this is due Monday

Answer 1

The 20 and 30 ohm resistors in parallel have an equivalent resistance of 12 ohms. Put the 10 and other 20 ohm resistors in series with that.

Answer 2

I drew my circuit but now I'm still confused-if I have a 20 V battery, how do I calculate the current through two of the resistors(say the two parallel ones of 20 and 30
Would I use the formula
V=IR
20V =I*12Ohm(which I just figured out)
20/12 = 1.67A But now I'm stuck because I don't know how to break it down into the 20 Ohm resistor and the 30 Ohm resistor

Answer 3

In my calculations I think I should have said V=IR
V= 20V Battery I used so
20V = I * 20 Ohm= 1A
20V = I * 30 Ohm = .67A

Answer 4

Your original question just asked for how to arrange the resistors to achieve a total effective resistance of 42 ohms. I told you how to do that. The total current going through each series resistor, and the battery, will be V/R = 20/42 = 0.476 Amp

The two resistors in parallel will share that current, with the lower (20 ohm) resistor getting 3/5 of it.

Answer 5

The reason I only asked the first part was I first wanted to understand how to construct it before I figured out the rest because I have three more sets of circuits to do so now I understand that part. I wasn't trying to mislead you-I really appreciate the help alot and can now continue with the other circuits using this as a basis-Thank you again for all your assistance