Click here to purchase the entire book in PDF format. Parallel circuits - from the point of view of the voltage Now let's connect the same two resistors to the battery slightly differently. We'll put them side by side, parallel to each other, as shown in the diagram below. This configuration is called parallel resistors and their effect on the current and voltage in the circuit is somewhat different than when they were in series... Figure 2.10: Two resistors and a battery, all in parallel. Look at the connections between the resistors and the battery. They are directly connected, therefore we know that the battery is ensuring that there is a 9 V voltage drop across each of the resistors. This is a state imposed by the battery, and you simply expected to accept it as a given... (just kidding...) The voltage difference across the battery terminals is 9 V - this is a given fact which doesn't change whether they are connected with a resistor or not. If we connect two parallel resistors across the terminals, they still stay 9 V apart. If this is causing some difficulty, think back to the example at the top of this page where we had a shower running while a toilet was flushing in the same house. The water pressure supplied to the house didn't change... It's the same thing with a battery and two parallel resistors.