Lecture 4: Basic Laws

Department of Electrical Engineering

EE1000: Basic Electrical Engineering

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Outline

1. Goals of the lesson

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Goals of the lesson

After going through the lesson, you shall get a broad idea of the following:
• To understand the Ohm’s law, Kirchhoff’s voltage and current laws and their applications
to circuits.

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Introduction
Introduction
1. Basic concepts such as current, voltage and power in an electric circuit have been
introduced.
2. In a given circuit, to determine these variables requires that we understand some
fundamental laws that govern electric circuits.
3. These laws are known as Ohm’s law, Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL) and Kirchhoff’s
voltage law (KVL).
4. These laws form the foundation upon which electric circuit analysis is built, in this
discussion. In addition to these laws, we will present some commonly applied techniques
in electric circuit analysis. These techniques include current division, voltage division,
combining resistors in series or parallel and star-to-delta and delta-to-star transformations.
5. In this discussion, the application of these laws and techniques will be restricted to
resistive circuits and several examples are presented.
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Ohm’s Law

Introduction
• In general, materials have a characteristic behaviour of resisting the flow of electric
charges.
• This physical property or ability to resist current is known as resistance and is represented
by the symbol R.
• In other words, resistance is the capacity of materials to impede the flow of current.
• The circuit element used to model this behaviour is the resistor.
• Fig. shows a material with uniform cross-sectional area A, length ℓ and resistivity ρ
(ohm-meter). We can represent the resistance in mathematical form

ℓ
R=ρ (1)
A

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Resistor and its circuit symbol

Figure 1: Resistor and its circuit symbol

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Ohm’s Law

• Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854), a German physicist who established the relationship
between current and voltage for a resistor. This relationship is known as Ohm’s Law.
• Ohm’s Law states that the voltage v across a resistor is directly proportional to the
current i flowing through the resistor.

v ∝i (2)
v = iR

• Ohm defined the constant of proportionality for a resistor to be the resistance R. The
resistance can change if the external or internal conditions of the element are altered.
• R in eqn. (2) is measured in the units of ohms, designated Ω.
• From Eqn. (2), we write R = vi , so that 1Ω = 1 Volt/Amp.

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Ohm’s Law

Contd..
• The polarity of voltage v and the direction of current i must conform with the passive
sign convention, as shown in Fig. 1 (b).
• If the current flows from a higher potential to a lower potential, v = iR and if the current
flows from a lower potential to a higher potential, v = −iR.
• Since the value of R can vary from ZERO to INFINITY, we must consider the two
extreme possible values of R.
• An element with R = ∞ is called open circuit, as shown in Fig. 2 (a). For an open
circuit, i = limR→∞ Rv = 0. This relation indicates that the current is zero, though the
voltage could be anything. Thus, an open circuit is a circuit element with resistance
approaching infinity.

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Ohm’s Law

Contd..
• Similarly, an element with R = 0 is called short circuit as shown in Fig. 2 (b). For a short
circuit, v = iR = 0, indicates that voltage is zero, but the current could be anything.
Thus, a short circuit is a circuit element element with resistance approaching zero.
• A resistor is either fixed or variable type. Fig. 3 (a), (b) and (c) show the symbol of fixed
resistor, variable resistor and a potentiometer or POT for short.
• For a fixed resistor, resistance is fixed. For variable resistors, resistance is adjustable. The
potentiometer as shown in Fig. 3 (c), is a common variable resistor. A potentiometer is a
three-terminal element with a sliding contact or wiper. By sliding the wiper, the
resistances between the wiper terminal and fixed terminals vary.

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Open Circuit and Short Circuit

Figure 2: Open Circuit and Short Circuit 10 / 41

Figure 3: Symbol of Resistors

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Linear and Nonlinear Resistor

• It is worth mentioning that not all resistors obey Ohm’s law. A resistor that obeys Ohm’s
law is known as a linear resistor.
• A linear resistor has a constant resistance, and its current-voltage characteristic is shown
in Fig. 4 (a) and is a straight line passing through the origin.
• A resistor that does not obey Ohm’s law is known as nonlinear resistor. The resistance of
a nonlinear resistor varies with the current, and a typical current-voltage characteristic is
shown in Fig. 4(b). A diode is an example of a device with nonlinear resistance.

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V-I Characteristics of Resistors

Figure 4: V-I Characteristics of Resistors

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Conductance
• In circuit analysis, reciprocal of resistance R is known as conductance and denoted by G :

1 i
G= = (3)
R v
• The conductance G is a measure of how well an element will conduct current. The unit
of conductance is the mho (℧) or Siemens (S). 1 Siemens= 1mho=1 A/V.
• Thus, conductance is the ability of an element to conduct electric current.
• From eqn. (3), we may write i = Gv . The power dissipated by a resistor can be expressed
as
v2
p = vi = (iR)R = i 2 R = (4)
R
2
i
Also, p = vi = v (Gv ) = v 2 G = G . The power dissipated in the resistor is a nonlinear
function of either current or voltage, as shown in Fig. 5.
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Power dissipated in a resistor

Figure 5: Power dissipated in a resistor 15 / 41

• Since resistance R and conductance G are positive quantities, the power dissipated in a
resistor is always positive. Thus, a resistor always absorbs power from the circuit. This
confirms the idea that a resistor is passive element and it is incapable of generating energy.

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Nodes, Branches and Loops
• The elements of an electric circuit can be interconnected in several ways. When
addressing network topology, the convention is to use the word network rather than a
circuit.
• We may regard a network as an interconnection of elements or devices, whereas a circuit
is a network with one or more closed paths.
• We need to understand some basic concepts of network topology. In network topology, we
study the geometric configuration of the network and the placement of the elements in
the network. These elements include branches, nodes and loops.
• Fig. 6 shows a simple circuit. A branch represents any two-terminal element. The circuit
in Fig. 6 has five branches: the 2-volt voltage source, the 2 amp current source, 5, 3 and
6 resistors.
• Thus, a branch represents a single element, such as a voltage source, a current source or
a resistor.
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A simple circuit:

Figure 6: Nodes, branches and loss

Contd..
• Usually, a node is indicated by a dot in a circuit. If a connecting wire connects two nodes,
the two nodes constitute a single node because the connecting wire has negligible
resistance (a short circuit).
• The circuit of Fig. 6 has three nodes: a, b and c. Note that three points forming node b
are connected by conducting wires and constitute a single point. Similarly, the same is
true for the four points forming node c.
• Fig. 7 shows the simplified circuit of Fig. 6. Therefore, it is clear from Fig. 7 that circuit
of Fig. 6 has three nodes.
• Thus, a node is the connection point between two or more branches.

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Three-node and five-branch circuit

Figure 7: Three-node and five-branch circuit

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Loop
• A loop in an electrical circuit is a closed path starting at a node and proceeding through
circuit elements, eventually returning to the starting node. Frequently, several loops can
be identified for a given circuit.
• A loop is considered independent if it contains at least one branch, which is not a part of
any other independent loop. Independent loops or paths result in independent sets of
equations.
• For example, in Fig. 7, the closed path abca containing 3Ω and 5Ω resistors is a loop.
Another loop is the closed path bcb containing 6Ω resistor and the current source.
• In Fig. 7, one can identify six loops; only three are independent.
• A network with n nodes, b branches and ℓ independent loops will satisfy the following
equation of network topology

b =ℓ+n−1 (5)

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Loop

• Elements are in series when they are connected sequentially. Elements are in parallel when
they are connected to the same pair of terminals. When elements are in series, they carry
the same current and when elements are in parallel, they have the same voltage across
them.

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Example
Determine the number of branches and nodes in the circuit shown in Fig. 8. Also identify,
which elements are in series and which are in parallel.

Figure 8: circuit

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Solution
There are four elements in the circuit; the circuit has four branches: 2Amp current source, 4
resistor, 8 resistor and 40 Volt voltage source. The circuit has three nodes.

Figure 9: circuit

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Solution

Figure 10: circuit

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KCL

• Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL) states that the algebraic sum of currents entering a node is
zero. Mathematically, KCL can be written as
N
X
ik = 0 (6)
k=1

where N is the number of branches connected to the node, and ik is the k-th current
entering or leaving the node.
• By this law, currents entering a node may be regarded as positive, while currents leaving
the node may be taken as negative or vice versa.
• Consider the node in Fig. 11. Applying KCL gives

i1 + (−i2 ) + i3 + i4 + (−i5 ) = 0 ⇒ i1 + i3 + i4 = i2 + i5 (7)

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KCL

Figure 11: KCL

From Eqn. (7), it is clear that the sum of the currents entering a node is equal to the sum of
the currents leaving the node.
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KVL

• Kirchhoff’s voltage law (KVL) states that the algebraic sum of all voltages around a
closed path (or loop) is zero. Mathematically, KVL can be expressed as:
M
X
vp = 0 (8)
p=1

where M is the number of voltages in the loop (or the number of branches in the loop),
and vp is the p-th voltage.
• For the purpose of explanation of KVL, consider Fig. 12.

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A single loop Circuit
KVL Yields: −v1 + v2 + v3 − v4 − v5 = 0 ⇒ v2 + v3 = v1 + v4 + v5

Figure 12: A single-loop circuit

Contd..
• From above, it may be interpreted as the sum of the voltage drops is equal to the sum of
the voltage rises.
• Note that the result would have been the same if we had travelled counterclockwise.

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Total Voltage

Figure 13: Total Voltage calculation

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Example
Find the voltage v0 in the circuit shown in Fig.14. Also find v1 and v2 .

Figure 14: Circuit

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Example

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Series Resistors and Voltage Division

• In circuit analysis, the need to combine resistors in series or parallel occurs frequently.
• In this section, we will discuss the series connection of resistors. Consider the single-loop
circuit of Fig. 15.
• Applying Ohm’s law to each of the resistors, we get,

v1 = iR1 ; v2 = iR2 (9)

By applying KVL to the loop (clockwise direction), we obtain

− v + v1 + v2 = 0 (10)
v = v1 + v2

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Series Resistors and voltage Division

Figure 15: Circuit 35 / 41

Figure 16: Circuit

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Derivation

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Parallel Registors and Current Division

Figure 17: Circuit

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Parallel Resistors and current Division

Figure 18: Circuit 39 / 41

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The End

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