Snap Circuits Kit

I just realized the other day that I have a great learning tool at my house that is my 5 year old son's! His aunt got him this snap circuit kit for Christmas last year and while I've been building a kit in the garage with a car battery, bulb, resistors, wire, and all of that, I had a much easier and cleaner version to play with right in the house. It came with pieces that have motors, bulbs, various types of resistors, speakers, and diodes. I've been playing with it and my volt meter recently trying to predict readings, doing voltage drop tests.

One thing I learned was that when I put the bulb and the motor in series, the bulb does not shine no matter what side of the motor is on. Knowing that the sum of all resistance equals the source voltage, I was surprised to see almost no voltage at the bulb at all with the power on. Does that mean that the draw is just much higher on the motor, sucking all of the power?

Just thought I'd share!

www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=snap+...ef=pd_sl_e037ghjex_e

I've seen these! I actually had a very similar kit when I was a kid - probably to blame for my interest in electronics. :silly:

www.amazon.com/Elenco-300-in-One-Electro...ct-Lab/dp/B00005K86O

One thing I learned was that when I put the bulb and the motor in series, the bulb does not shine no matter what side of the motor is on. Knowing that the sum of all resistance equals the source voltage, I was surprised to see almost no voltage at the bulb at all with the power on. Does that mean that the draw is just much higher on the motor, sucking all of the power?

Does the motor run at the same time the bulb isn't shining? :huh:

I don't remember now, but I don't think so? I meant to put new batteries in the source box, since I think they are old. So that could be one reason.