CURRENTS THROUGH PARALLEL RESISTANCES

Refer to the schematic diagram of Fig. 1. The total parallel resistance in the circuit is R. The battery voltage is E. The current in branch n, containing resistance R_n, is measured by ammeter A and is called I_n.
The sum of all the I_n values in the circuit is equal to the total current I drawn from the source. That is, the current is divided up in the parallel circuit, similarly to the way that voltage is divided up in a series circuit.

Fig. 1. Analysis of current in a parallel dc circuit. See text for discussion.