In Reply to: abandon hope all ye who enter......! posted by Till E. on December 22, 2001 at 05:50:40:
When two equal value resistors are connected in parallel, the resistance is halved and the power handling is doubled. This is largely because there is now two current paths, and power dissipation is split between them so capacity is doubled. When equal values are connected in series, current is now reduced - cut in half. This also means that the voltage across each resistor is made 1/2. So combining these effects, you now get 1/4th power across each series component that you would have had if the component were connected by itself.
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