Two lamps on the same household circuit

Question: You turn on two lamps that are on the same household circuit. Each one has a resistance of 1 ohm. What is the equivalent resistance, and how does the power dissipation compare with the case of a single lamp?

Solution: The equivalent resistance of the two lamps in parallel is

The voltage difference across the whole circuit is always the 110 V set by the electric company (it's alternating current, but that's irrelevant). The resistance of the whole circuit has been cut in half by turning on the second lamp, so a fixed amount of voltage will produce twice as much current. Twice the current flowing across the same voltage difference means twice as much power dissipation, which makes sense.