Electrical Measurements and Instrumentation

Tutorial-9
Question 1:
Calculate the impedance value necessary to balance this AC Bridge, expressing your answer in both polar
and rectangular forms.

Also, describe what sort of device might be appropriate to serve as a null detector to indicate when
bridge balance has been achieved, and where this device would be connected to in the bridge circuit.
Solution:
Z = 337.6 -90o (polar form)
Z = 0 - j337.6 (rectangular form)
The simplest null detector for this type of AC bridge would be a sensitive pair of audio headphones, as
600 Hz is well within the audio range, and would be heard as a tone in the headphones.

Question 2:
An AC bridge circuit commonly used to make precision measurements of inductors is the Maxwell-Wien
bridge. It uses a combination of standard resistors and capacitors to balance out the inductor of unknown
value in the opposite arm of the bridge.

Suppose this bridge circuit balances when Cs is adjusted to 120 nF and Rs is adjusted to 14.25 k. If the
source frequency is 400 Hz, and the two xed-value resistors are 1 k each, calculate the inductance (Lx)
and resistance (Rx) of the inductor being tested.

Solution:
Lx = 120 mH
Rx = 70.175