Summary: A brief description of Kirchoff's Laws (current and voltage) Note: his browser cannot correctly display !ath!

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Kirchoff's Current Law

At every node# the sum of all currents entering a node must e-ual 'ero" .hat this law means physically is that charge cannot accumulate in a node/ what goes in must come out" )n the e+ample# figure 0# below we have a three1node circuit and thus have three K2L e-uations" 345i345i167 (0) i1345i267 (8) i9i267 (:) Note that the current entering a node is the negative of the current leaving the node" ;iven any two of these K2L e-uations# we can find the other by adding or subtracting them" hus# one of them is redundant and# in mathematical terms# we can discard any one of them" he convention is to discard the e-uation for the (unlabeled) node at the bottom of the circuit" &igure 0

Subfigure 0"0 Subfigure 0"8 &igure 0: he circuit shown is perhaps the simplest circuit that performs a signal processing function" he input is provided by the voltage source vin and the output is the voltage vout across the resistor labelled R2" $roblem 0 )n writing K2L e-uations# you will find that in an n1node circuit# e+actly one of them is always redundant" 2an you s<etch a proof of why this might be true= >int: )t has to do with the fact that charge won't accumulate in one place on its own" ? 2lic< for Solution 0 @ Solution 0 K2L says that the sum of currents entering or leaving a node must be 'ero" )f we consider two nodes together as a AsupernodeA# K2L applies as well to currents entering the combination" Since no currents enter an entire circuit# the sum of currents must be 'ero" )f we had a two1node circuit# the K2L

e-uation of one must be the negative of the other# .e can combine all but one node in a circuit into a supernode/ K2L for the supernode must be the negative of the remaining node's K2L e-uation" 2onse-uently# specifying n3450 K2L e-uations always specifies the remaining one" ? >ide Solution 0 @

Kirchoff's Voltage Law (KVL)

he voltage law says that the sum of voltages around every closed loop in the circuit must e-ual 'ero" A closed loop has the obvious definition: Starting at a node# trace a path through the circuit that returns you to the origin node" KBL e+presses the fact that electric fields are conservative: he total wor< performed in moving a test charge around a closed path is 'ero" he KBL e-uation for our circuit is v19v2345v67 (C) )n writing KBL e-uations# we follow the convention that an element's voltage enters with a plus sign if traversing the closed path# we go from the positive to the negative of the voltage's definition"