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For the current to flow at all, a voltage source is connected to the resistors, which supplies the voltage \(U\). The positive pole of the voltage source is connected to one end of all three resistors and the negative pole is connected to the other end of all three resistors.
When resistors are connected in parallel, the reciprocals of the individual resistances add up:\[ \frac{1}{R} ~=~ \frac{1}{R_1} ~+~ \frac{1}{R_2} ~+~ \frac{1}{R_3} \]where \(R\) is the total resistance of the series circuit. This is also called equivalent resistance.