The voltage drop across a large resistance in a circuit will be

• A. Small
• B. Large
• C. Zero
• D. Equal to supply

Answer: (B)

Voltage drop follows Ohm’s law: V = I × R. In a series circuit, the same current flows through each component, so increasing resistance directly increases the voltage that resistor absorbs. A larger resistance “uses” more of the supply voltage, leaving less for the others, which is why the voltage drop across a large resistor is large. For example, with a 12 V supply and resistors in series, a big resistor will carry the same current as smaller ones but produce a bigger drop (V ≈ I × R), so you might see around 10 V across the large one and a few volts across the smaller ones. If there were only one resistor across the supply, that drop would equal the full supply, but with multiple resistors, the large one still takes a larger share. In a parallel circuit, each branch sees the full supply voltage, so the large resistor doesn’t have a larger drop compared to the others.