Kieren,

Yes, 10V from the battery is always 10V, regardless of how many
parallel loads are attached (assuming the battery can supply the
current required).

Note that in your example, you are splitting the
10V by using a resistor divider.  The 4 and 6V are the drops ACROSS
the respective resistors, this is not the same as a 4V and a 6V supply.  In
particular, the 6Volts accross the left resistor is not referenced to the
batteries 0V or ground, and is instead actually  4Volts and 10V
above the 0V reference depending on which side you want to measure.

> If this is true, am I to assume that in general, people use 2 small,
> different value resistors in series, and run a load in parallel with one
of
> them to lower voltages? :D

No, absolutely not.  If you were to run a load in parallel with one
of the series resistors, it would change the effective resistance of that
portion of the circuit, and hence the voltage at the node. Have a look at
a basic circuits book, look around the sections dealing with
thevenin, norton theorems and node voltages.

Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kieren Johnstone" <misterfugit@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 3:15 PM
Subject: [EE] Will the questions never end?! ;) (small attachment)


> Hi,
>
> I've been studying my introductory textbooks for a while now, getting this
> one theory right would be a milestone for me.  I've attached a .gif of the
> question in question :D.  Basically, if I have two circuits, connected in
> parallel to a source (lets say a 10V battery), and voltage-divide on one
of
> them with resistors, can I create 2 off-coming voltages of (lets say for
> example) 4V and 6V... and then, could I still get a 10V supply from the
> other connected circuit (same source), and divide that as I saw fit? :)
> If this is true, am I to assume that in general, people use 2 small,
> different value resistors in series, and run a load in parallel with one
of
> them to lower voltages? :D
>
> Thanks,
> Kieren
>
> P.S. Saturday I buy all my kit! :D
>

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