The simplest electric circuit is a light bulb and a battery.
The battery creates a force pushing the charged particles in the wire,
causing them to flow in a loop around the circuit.
The number of charged particles that pass by each second
is what we refer to as the current.
The charged particles flow through the light bulb because the battery causes them
to have a higher potential energy on one side of the light bulb than the other.
This is similar to how objects at higher elevations
have a higher gravitational potential energy.
This potential energy is what we refer to as voltage.
If we visualize the potential energy as boxes that are attached to
the charged particles, then we will see that
this energy is converted into light as the particles pass through the bulb.
The charged particles regain their potential energy
as they move through the battery, which pushes
the charged particles to the higher potential.
When the energy inside the battery is depleted,
the battery will no longer be able to create
this potential energy which we call voltage.
A battery that has not yet been depleted ensures that
the voltage between its two terminals is always at a specific value.
If we place several batteries with the same voltage together in parallel,
then this will result in more energy that is stored,
and this will give us more time before the battery is depleted.
If we instead place these batteries in series,
this will cause their voltages to add,
resulting in a much higher potential energy for each charged particle.
A higher voltage across the light bulb means
that a higher current will pass through it.
This will cause far more light to be emitted by the light bulb, but
it will also mean that the energy in the batteries will be depleted much faster.
Much more detailed information about
voltage, current, and electric circuits is
available in the other videos on this channel.