1

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
Voltage and Current
Division Rules
2
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
To apply the voltage and current
division rules.
Objectives
3
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
Voltage Division
For example, we know
i = V
TOTAL
/ (R
1
+ R
2
+ R
3
)
so the voltage over the first resistor
is
V
1
=i R
1
= R
1
V
TOTAL
/ (R
1
+ R
2
+ R
3
)
To find the voltage over an individual resistance in series, take the total series
voltage and multiply by the individual resistance over the total resistance.
3 2 1
1
1
R R R
R
V v
+ +
=
4
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
Example
determine the voltage across each resistor
5
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
Example
determine the voltage across
each resistor
2 1
R R
v
i
s
s
+
=
s
s
v
R R
R
v
v
R R
R
v
2 1
2
2
2 1
1
1
+
=
+
=
i
S
i
S
6
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
Summary
The source voltage v is divided among the resistors in direct proportion
to their resistances
the larger the resistance, the larger the voltage drop.
This is called the principle of voltage division,
In general
If a voltage divider has N resistors (R
1
,R
2
, . . . , R
N
) in series with the
source voltage v, the n
th
resistor (R
n
) will have a voltage drop of
7
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
Current Division
If we know the current flowing into two parallel resistors, we can find out how
the current will divide up in one step.
1
1
R
v
i =
(

+
=
2 1
2 1
1
1
1
R R
R R
i
R
i
2 1
2
1
R R
R
i i
+
=
8
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
R
2
= 0 implies that i
1
= 0, i
2
= i.
R
2
= , that is, R
2
is an open
R
2
, then
R
eq
= R
1
Note that this differs slightly from the voltage division formula for series resistors
9
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
= + = =
2 1
1
2
2 1
2
1
2
1 2
1
2
1
1 1
2
1
1 2
R R
R
i i
R R
R
i i
R
R R
i
R
R
i i i
R
R
i i
s
s
s
Example
Find i
1
and i
2
in terms of i
s
2 1
i i i
s
+ =
2 2 1 1
R i R i =
R
1
i
s i
1
R
2 i
2
v
1
= v
2
10
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology
Example
Use Voltage and current division rules to find V
o
and i
o
2
3 6
3 6
=
+

Step 1
Step 2
Step 1