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1. A device has a 150 Ohm resistance and a 2A electric current passes. The potential difference is…

2. Based on the table below, the relation between voltage (V), electric current (I) and resistance (R) is…..

3. The electric current in a resistor wire is 4 A. When both ends are given a potential of 12
Volts. What is the electrical resistance?
4. Find the three unknown currents (I1, I2, I3) and three unknown voltages (Vab, Vbd, Vcd ) in the circuit
below:
4. A device has a 150 Ohm resistance and a 2A electric current passes. The potential difference is…

Known :

Resistance (R) = 150 Ohm

The electric current (I) = 2 Ampere

Wanted: Voltage (V)

Solution :

V=IR

V = electric voltage, I = electric current, R = electric resistance

Voltage :

V = I R = (2 Ampere)(150 Ohm) = 300 Volt

5. The electric current in a resistor wire is 4 A. When both ends are given a potential of 12 Volts.
What is the electrical resistance?
Known :
Electric current (I) = 4 Ampere
Voltage (V) = 12 Volt
Wanted : Electric resistance (R)
Solution :
Resistance :
R = V / I = 12 Volt / 4 Ampere = 3 Ohm
Based on the table below, the relation between voltage (V), electric current (I) and resistance (R) is…..

Solution :

Ohm’s law :

V = I R or R = V / I

R1 = V / I = 1.50 / 0.08 = 18.75 Ohm

R2 = V / I = 2.80 / 1.50 = 2.87 Ohm

R3 = V / I = 3.99 / 2.10 = 1.9 Ohm

Based on the table, the relationship between V, I and R is the value of R inversely proportional to V and I. That
means the larger the V and I, the smaller R.

The value of V / I is not constant so it does not illustrate Ohm’s law. According to Ohm’s law, the value of V / I
must be constant.

Read : Young’s double-slit experiment - prob

Next: Network Theorems Up: Chapter 2: Circuit Principles Previous: Chapter 2: Circuit Principles

Solving Circuits with Kirchoff Laws

Example 1: Find the three unknown currents ( ) and three unknown voltages ( ) in the
circuit below:
Note: The direction of a current and the polarity of a voltage source can be assumed arbitrarily. To determine
the actual direction and polarity, the sign of the values also should be considered. For example, a current labeled
in left-to-right direction with a negative value is actually flowing right-to-left.

All voltages and currents in the circuit can be found by either of the following two methods, based on KVL or
KCL respectively.

 The loop-current method based on KVL:

1. For each of the independent loops in the circuit, define a loop current around the loop in
clockwise (or counter clockwise) direction. These loop currents are the unknown variables to
be obtained.
2. Apply KVL around each of the loops in the same clockwise direction to obtain equations.
While calculating the voltage drop across each resistor shared by two loops, both loop currents
(in opposite positions) should be considered.
3. Solve the equation system with equations for the unknown loop currents.

Find currents from a to b, from c to b, and from b to d.

o Assume two loop currents and around loops abda and bcdb and apply the KVL to them:

o We rewrite these as:

o
o
 o and then get , , and . Having

found and , we can easily find all voltages in the circuit:

, , ,

, , and .

o We could also apply KVL around the third loop of abcda with a loop current to get three
equations:

o However, it is clear that the third equation is not independent, as it is the sum of the first two
equations.

o Alternatively, consider the two loop currents and around loops abda and bcdb:

o i.e.,

o
o

o and we get and , same as the previous results.

 The node-voltage method based on KCL:
0. Assume there are nodes in the circuit. Select one of them as the ground, the reference point

for all voltages of the circuit. The voltage at each of the remaining nodes is an unknown
to be obtained.
 1. Apply KCL to each of the nodes, to obtain equations.

2. Solve the equation system with equations for the unknown node voltages.

In the same circuit considered previously, there are only 2 nodes and ( and are not nodes). We

assume node is the ground, and consider just voltage at node as the only unknown in the
problem. Apply KCL to node , we have

where each current is expressed as the voltage drop between the two ends of a resistor in the branch divided by
the resistance of the resistor (Ohm's law):

Substituting , , and into the equation, we get

Solving this we get , and all other currents and voltages can be found

subsequently: ,

, .

We could also apply KCL to node d, but the resulting equation is exactly the same

as simply because this node d is not independent.

As special case of the node-voltage method with only two nodes, we have the following theorem:

 Millman's theorem

If there are multiple parallel branches between two nodes and , such as the circuit below (left), then the
voltage at node can be found as shown below if the other node is treated as the reference point.

Assume there are three types of branches:

o voltage branches with sources in series with . The polarity of each is + on the node a
side.

o current branches with (independent of resistors in series). The direction of each is toward
node a.

o resistor branches with .

Applying KCL to node , we have:

Solving for , we get

where the reciprocal of the resistance is the conductance.

The dual form of the Millman's theorem can be derived based on the loop circuit on the right. Applying KVL to
the loop, we have:

Solving for , we get

Example 2: Solve the following circuit:

  Loop current method: Let the three loop currents in the example above be , and for loops 1
(top-left bacb), 2 (top-right adca), and 3 (bottom bcdb), respectively, and applying KVL to the three
loops, we get

We can then solve these 3 loop equations to find the 3 loop currents.

 Node voltage method: If node d is chosen as ground, we can apply KCL to the remaining 3 nodes at a,
b, and c, and get (assuming all currents leave each node):

We can then solve these 3 node equations to find the 3 node voltages.

We see that either of the loop-current and node-voltage methods requires to solve a linear system of 3 equations
with 3 unknowns.

Example 3: Solve the following circuit with , , , ,

, . This circuit has 3 independent loops and 3 independent nodes.

 Loop current method:

Assume three loop currents (left), (right), (top) all in clock-wise direction. We take advantage of the

fact that the current source is in loop 1 only, with loop current , and get the following two

(instead of three) loop equations with 2 unknown loop currents and :

i.e.,

We can also get the three node voltages with respect to the bottom node treated as ground:

o Right node:

o Middle node:

o Left node:
 Node voltage method:

Assume the three node voltages with respect to the bottom node treated as ground to

be (left), (middle), (right). We take advantage of the fact that one side of the voltage source is

treated as ground, and get the note voltage . Then we have only two (instead of three)

node equations with 2 unknown node voltages and :

i.e.,
The voltages are the same as before.

In summary, here we have taken advantage of either the given current source by the following:

 let a given current source be in a loop not shared with any other loop, so that the loop current is known;
 let one of the two ends of a given voltage source be the ground, so that the voltage at the other end is
known.

By either of these methods, the number of unknown loop currents or node voltages is reduced by one.

In other words, to simplify the analysis, it is preferable to

 choose independent loops to avoid current source shared by two or more loops,
 choose ground node so that one or more voltage sources are connected to ground.

Example 4: In the circuit below, , , , , , .

Find all node voltages with respect to the top-left corner treated as the ground. Then do the same when the

middle node where all three resistors , , and join is treated as ground is treated as the ground.

Answer

Example 5: The two circuits shown below are equivalent, but you may want to choose wisely in terms of which

is easier to analyze. Solve this circuit using both node voltage and loop current methods. Assume

, , , , , and .
Answer

Next: Network Theorems Up: Chapter 2: Circuit Principles Previous: Chapter 2: Circuit Principles

Ruye Wang 2019-02-20