# Multiple Circuits **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2000, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-circuits/7433 "2000-02-15T00:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oblio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c4cdca/32.png) [@Oblio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblio)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-circuits/7433/21 "2000-02-17T03:51:00Z")
opus - Good point, I swear I didn’t see your post prior to my spewing of differentials. Ignore the above. * * * A point in every direction is like no point at all ---
**Author:** ![TBone2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@TBone2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBone2)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-circuits/7433/22 "2000-02-17T06:11:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by opus: > \*\* I hope these folks weren’t schooled in electronics! > > Capacitors & coils have nothing in common (even physically), and I doubt that even an amateur technician would confuse the two. They behave in precisely the opposite way in electronic circuits. Capacitors used to be called _condensers_ and coils were called _chokes_. > > Take it easy on the Ohm’s law & the diagrams, kids. Remember we’re trying to explain electricity to somebody who knows little or nothing about it. > > \*\* Well, I guess my grandpa, being dead these past twenty-seven years, ain’t got much to say. On his behalf, I’ll say that he didn’t have much schooling in anything. Electronics was a thing as alien to him as Mandarin Chinese is to almost everyone who reads this. My grandpa called that can strapped to or near a refrigerator motor a “coil.” Many others I’ve known have done so. You, sir, can call it anything you like, but you, like most of the folks who knew my grandpa, know EXACTLY what he was talking about. If my refrigerator took a shit, I’d look around, I’d see you, and I’d start wishing my grandpa was still kickin’… * * * _I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…_ T ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-circuits/7433/23 "2000-02-17T06:46:00Z")
joemill \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*snoflakes If you evercome back to this site here is your answer Draw 2 parrallel lines Thats a road Label 1 line N Label 2nd line S now draw a offramp from n to s that is a light bulb it could be a radio who cares now draw a stoplight somewhere on the offramp. that is your switch it doesn’t matter where the switch is it breaks the flow of current -cars- when it is turned off. Now do it again draw the same circuit.only this time use a tv set who cares it is your circuit. keep doing it til you draw enough current to burn the whole thing up .that is another lesson good luck. \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*watch out for those snowflakes justwannano :} ---
**Author:** ![joemill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@joemill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joemill)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2000, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-circuits/7433/24 "2000-02-18T06:10:00Z")
Thanks everyone for your explinations. I was always under the assumption that ALL the electricity would go through the first circuit and there would be none left for the rest. An interesting sideline. We all know that electricity travels around the speed of light. But I heard that if you could tag an individual electron and watch it jump from atom to atom in an electrical circuit, it moves amazingly slow (something like 1 foot an hour). Heard that on a science program… ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-circuits/7433/25 "2000-02-17T19:26:00Z")
Upon further consideration You may be talking about using a 2way switch like used in the home stairwell.They run a wire between the switches and switch the hot side back and forth.It is easiest to understand by looking at the box that the switch comes in . The wiring diagram is self explanitary Try Walmart Menards Lows etc [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-circuits/7433.md?page=1)