Complex electrical circuits provide the field of electrical engineering and it is of utmost importance that effective circuit analysis be learned by anyone who aspires to succeed in the said field. There are a handful of circuit analysis theorems at the disposal of the student.
First is the most fundamental, Ohm’s law. It linearly relates the current and voltage. In words, voltage is equal to a constant times the current. The constant is arbitrarily a quantity that represents the element, which has the voltage drop and passing current through it. Furthermore, this value can be observed to decrease the value of the current as can be seen if the original equation is rewritten to isolate the current. Since as the constant increases, the value of the current decreases for constant voltage, it tends to resist flow. Thus the name coined was resistance or impedance. The reciprocal of resistance is of course the ability to help flow or a more succinct term is conductance or admittance. Though this law is not very effective when dealing with very complex circuits as a whole, they can be efficiently used with other theorems to make some of the simplification a walk in the park.
Next are Kirchhoff’s current and voltage laws. These two laws are one of the most fundamental things to master to understand higher disciplines in the field. The current law states that the sum of the values of he currents leaving and entering a node is equal to zero. The voltage law states that the sum of all voltage drops around a loop is equal to zero. The first law simply says that what goes in must go out and with this, you could easily write current equations. The same goes for the voltage law. When we combine Ohm’s law with one of the two laws above, a new analysis theorem is formed. If you combine current law with the Ohm’s law and current law, you obtain nodal analysis. With voltage and Ohm’s law, you obtain the mesh analysis.
Posted 2010-12-14 and updated on Dec 14, 2010 5:58am by crisd