Current is consumed in a bulb

Current Electricity · Concept Trap

Concept Visual

🧠 Think carefully

❌ Wrong belief:
Current gets used up in the bulb, so less current comes out.

✅ Correct understanding:
Many students imagine current like fuel that gets burned inside a bulb. This idea feels natural—but it is physically wrong and leads to serious mistakes in circuit questions.

Concept Visual

🧠 Think carefully

❌ Wrong belief:
Bulb “consumes” current to produce light.

✅ Correct understanding:
A bulb does not consume current. It converts electrical energy into light and heat, not current itself. ???? Current is charge per second, not energy.

Concept Visual

🧠 Think carefully

❌ Wrong belief:
Current entering the bulb is greater than current leaving it.

✅ Correct understanding:
In a steady circuit, ✔ Current entering the bulb = ✔ Current leaving the bulb Otherwise, charge would pile up inside the bulb—which never happens.

Concept Visual

🧠 Think carefully

❌ Wrong belief:
If current is not consumed, nothing should change in the bulb.

✅ Correct understanding:
What changes is energy, not current. ✔ Charges lose electrical potential energy ✔ Same charges continue moving ✔ Same amount of current flows everywhere in series

Concept Visual

🧠 Think carefully

❌ Wrong belief:
Dim bulbs have less current leaving them.

✅ Correct understanding:
Dimness depends on power, not loss of current. Bulb brightness changes due to resistance and voltage, not because current is “used up.”

Concept Visual

🧠 Think carefully

❌ Wrong belief:
Current decreases as we move along a series circuit.

✅ Correct understanding:
In a series circuit: Current is same at all points What drops is voltage, not current ???? Voltage drops → ???? Energy released → ???? Current continues

Concept Visual

🧠 Think carefully

❌ Wrong belief:
Bulb consumes current.

✅ Correct understanding:
✔ Bulb consumes energy ✔ Current is conserved ✔ Same current flows before and after the bulb ???? Exams test this difference heavily.

📐 Key Formula
I = Q / t P = VI

⚠️ Exam Trap
In many MCQs, options say “Current decreases after passing through bulb” ❌ This is always wrong for steady DC circuits.

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