Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC ) Electrical Practice Test

When resistors are connected in parallel, what happens to the voltage drop across each resistor?

1. It varies by the resistor’s size.

2. It becomes zero.

3. It matches the applied source voltage.

4. It is the sum of all resistors.

The correct answer is: It matches the applied source voltage.

When resistors are connected in parallel, the voltage drop across each resistor matches the applied source voltage. This characteristic arises from the nature of parallel circuitry, where each resistor is directly connected to the voltage source. In a parallel arrangement, the same voltage appears across all components because they share the same two nodes. Therefore, irrespective of the individual resistance values, each resistor experiences the full voltage from the power supply. This is fundamental to parallel circuits and is crucial for proper circuit analysis and design in HVAC systems. Understanding this helps in troubleshooting and predicting how circuits behave, especially in applications involving multiple devices or components connected to the same voltage source.