Introductory Physics II

Chapter 26
Electrical circuits – Kirchhoff's rules
Series and parallel resistors

Lecture 11 – February 25
Outline of chapter 26

• Internal resistance of a battery

• Resistors in series and in parallel
• Kirchhoff’s rules
• Circuits with resistors and capacitors (RC circuits)
• Instruments for electrical measurements
• Power distribution

New concepts/quantities
• Series and parallel connections (not really new)
• Junctions
• Loops
• Time constant of RC circuit
• Ammeter, voltmeter
 Potential drop

• The conventional current: motion of positive charges, “from plus to minus”.

• The positive charges motion in electric field: from high potential to low
potential (downhill).
• When the current goes through a resistor, the potential of the charges
decreases.
• The decrease is given by Ohm’s law:
Δ𝑉 = 𝑅 𝐼
• This potential difference is also called “potential drop” across the resistor.

VA The potential (energy) decreases as the positive charge

𝑉𝐵 < 𝑉𝐴
goes through the resistor.
+ I
Δ𝑉 = 𝑉𝐴 − 𝑉𝐵 The potential drop across the resistor
VB
The charges have to be raised again at the higher potential if a
continuous flow of charges is desired.
 Circuit with ideal battery

Higher potential

Lower potential

Ideally there is no energy dissipated inside the battery. If we neglect the energy dissipated
inside the battery we call it ideal battery.
In this case we have
𝐸
𝐸 = 𝑉 = 𝑖𝑅 or 𝑖=
𝑅
 Circuit with real battery

• A real battery has some internal

resistance so part of the EMF is used to
drive charges through this resistance.
r • The potential difference provided to the
external resistor is less than the EMF.
• The internal resistance is modeled as a
resistor in series with an ideal battery.

𝐸
𝐸 = 𝑉𝑟 + 𝑉𝑅 = 𝑖𝑟 + 𝑖𝑅 = 𝑖(𝑟 + 𝑅) or 𝑖=
𝑅+𝑟

This is Ohm’s law for the full circuit.

 Resistors in Series

1. All resistors in series have the same current through them.

2. The total potential difference is equal to the sum of the potential
differences across each resistor..
Resistors in Series

n
 Resistors in Series

𝑖1 = 𝑖2 = 𝑖3 = 𝑖 V= 𝑅1 𝑖 + 𝑅2 𝑖 + 𝑅3 𝑖 = 𝑖(𝑅1 + 𝑅2 + 𝑅3 )
𝑉 = 𝑉1 + 𝑉2 + 𝑉3
𝑉 𝑅𝑒𝑞 = 𝑅1 + 𝑅2 + 𝑅3
𝑅𝑒𝑞 =
𝑖
Resistors in Parallel

1. All resistors in parallel have the same

potential difference.

2. The total current is equal to the sum of

the currents.
 Resistors in Parallel

𝑉1 𝑉2 𝑉3 1 1 1
𝑖= + + =𝑉 + +
𝑉1 = 𝑉2 = 𝑉3 = 𝑉 𝑅1 𝑅2 𝑅3 𝑅1 𝑅2 𝑅3
𝑖 = 𝑖1 + 𝑖2 + 𝑖3 𝑉 1 1 1 1
𝑖= = + +
𝑅𝑒𝑞 𝑅𝑒𝑞 𝑅1 𝑅2 𝑅3
 Rules of Resistors

1. The equivalent resistance ofresistors in series 𝑁

𝑅𝑒𝑞 = ෍ 𝑅𝑖
is larger than the largest of the individual
𝑖=1
resistors.
𝑁
2. The equivalent resistance of resistors in 1 1
=෍
parallel is smaller than the smallest of the 𝑅𝑒𝑞 𝑅𝑖
𝑖=1
individual resistors.

3. The power dissipated in the equivalent circuit is the same as

the sum of the powers dissipated in the individual resistors (for
both types of connections).
 Resistors and Capacitors

Series Parallel

𝑁 𝑁
1 1
𝑅𝑒𝑞 = ෍ 𝑅𝑖 =෍
Resistor 𝑖=1
𝑅𝑒𝑞 𝑅𝑖
𝑖=1

𝑁 𝑁
1 1
Capacitor 𝐶𝑒𝑞
=෍
𝐶𝑖
𝐶𝑒𝑞 = ෍ 𝐶𝑖
𝑖=1 𝑖=1
 Multi-Loop Circuits

Junctions
(nodes)

Loops

A new method is needed for more complex circuits.

This method is based on Kirchhoff's rules.
 Kirchhoff’s rules

1. Kirchhoff’s Junction Rule

The current entering a junction equals the total current leaving a
junction.

Example: at junction d, i1 and i3enter the junction and i2 leaves the junction.

2. Kirchhoff’s Loop Rule

The sum of the potential differences around a closed loop is zero.
 Kirchhoff’s Loop Rule

The potential increases as we go through

the battery and decreases as we travel 𝐸 − 𝑖𝑟 − 𝑖𝑅 = 0
through the resistor.
 Multi-Loop Circuits

• In multi-loop circuits we don not know

the way the currents flow
beforehand.
• What to do?
• We simply choose some arbitrary
directions, to start with. Don’t worry,
any choice is “good” for what follows.
You cannot be “wrong”.

Left loop counterclockwise (from b to a to d and back to b)

E 1 − i1R1 + i3R3 = 0

Right loop clockwise (from b to c to d and back to b)

E 2 +i2 R2 + i3R3 = 0
Kirchhoff’s Loop Rule (Batteries)

– +
Forward Δ𝑉 = +𝐸
E
“You” go

– +
Backward Δ𝑉 = −𝐸
E
“You” go
 Kirchhoff’s Loop Rule (Resistors)

i
With the Δ𝑉 = −𝑖𝑅
Current R
“You” go

i
Δ𝑉 = +𝑖𝑅
Against the
Current R
“You” go
 Solving Multi-Loop Circuits

Steps to follow when solving a multi-loop circuit:

a) Count up the number of unknowns.
b) Use each small loop only once.
c) Use as many junctions as are necessary to solve for all the
unknowns.
d) Solve the set of equations to find the currents.
e) Some currents may come out with negative values. It’s OK.
This means these currents are not actually flowing as we
drew them in the beginning but in the opposite direction.
f) So now we know both the values of the currents and their
directions. So we are done.