Circuit Analysis – Meaning of Leads in Equivalent Resistances

circuit analysis

Following on this question (How to combine two resistors with a voltage source) and faced with a similar example, it would seem the opposite applies. I am given the circuit below:

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

and told Rth is (R1||R2)+(R3||R4). In this question (How to combine two resistors with a voltage source), it seemed the terminals were implied to be meaningless, implying that here, R1––R2 and R3––R4. What am I missing?

EDIT

In response to some of the answers below, I will redraw the circuit to better illustrate my confusion:

schematic

simulate this circuit

What is the role of the red leads? What is the meaning of asking for a resistance between these vs "the whole circuit"?

Best Answer

You can't just take away the red nodes as you did. You want to find the equivalent resistance as seen at these two nodes, so if the nodes are removed then you can't get a meaningful solution anymore. In problems like this we assume that something will eventually be connected at the red nodes.

And, when you combine circuit elements in series the node that previously existed between them is no longer part of the circuit....it is buried somewhere inside the single new element that is equivalent to the two original elements.