Discover: Switch On, Switch Off

Various types of switches let you control circuits in various ways.



One of the most common types of switches is a toggle switch. Toggle switches can be in either the "on" or the "off" position. The light switch in your bedroom is likely a toggle switch.


Switches allow you to control whether current flows. We use the terms "closed" and "open" to describe the position of switches. An open circuit means that a switch is in the open position and no complete path is available for current. In a closed circuit, the switch is in the closed position and there is a complete pathway along which electricity can flow.



Look closely at the switches in these diagrams. In the closed circuit, electricity can flow to make the lamp glow.

Switches can make circuits safer. You learned earlier in this unit that a circuit breaker is a switch that turns off the electricity automatically in home circuits. Another type of switch that is used for safety is a push-button switch (also known as a "push-to-make" switch). Push-button switches are always in the "off" position. The only way to keep a push-button switch "on" is to press it and keep holding it.




To leave a hand blender running is unsafe, and nobody wants to hear a doorbell ringing continually! That is why push-button switches operate these devices.

How can you control the current in an electrical circuit?

Materials
  • Electricity Kit items: battery holder, 4 connecting wires, lamp holder and lamp, push button switch
  • 2 AA batteries or D-cell battery
  • Optional: other material if you do not have an ADLC kit: cardboard, 2 paper fasteners, paper clip, thick rubber band
  • Optional: Yenka software

  Notebook

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