Question

Why must you hook up ammeters in series with a circuit, but voltmeters in parallel?

Answer 1

First of all, you need to know what ammeters and voltmeters do. Ammeters are used to measure current and voltmeters are used to measure the voltage in the circuit. So when we are measuring current using an ammeter we have to connect it in the circuit in such a way so that all the current in the circuit must pass through it. So to do it we must have to put the ammeter in series with the circuit and thus all current will pass through it.

But in the case of measuring the voltage using a voltmeter we just have to determine the voltage difference between two points. and to do this we just put the voltmeter in parallel to the circuit between these two points and we get the voltage difference.