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Physics 6B: Problem 34 From Chapter 21 of Serway & Jewett "Solving" A Circuit
Physics 6B: Problem 34 From Chapter 21 of Serway & Jewett "Solving" A Circuit
Solving a Circuit
34. The ammeter shown in Figure 1 below reads 2.00 A. Find I1 , I2 , and E.
Given
V1 = (15.0 V), R1 = (7.00 ), R2 = (2.00 ), R3 = (5.00 ), and I3 = (2.00 A).
Initial observations
Since we dont know the orientation of the ammeter, we have that the meter reading (2.00 A) could
be in either direction, so I3 could be positive or negative. However, given the orientation of the
voltage sources (which could be batteries, cells, or some other seats of emf), we can imagine that
positive charges are moving in the direction of the arrows for I1 and I2 . Then we expect that all of
these positive charges will also be moving along the direction of the arrow for I3 , meaning that I3
should have a positive value. I will do this problem without assuming that I3 is positive and well
see how it might be negative.
(1)
0 + I3 R3 + I2 R2 E = 0
(2)
I1 + I2 I3 = 0
(3)
Now, using these equations in the order 1, 3, 2, we can solve for the unknowns:
(
)
V1 I3 R3
(15.0 V) (2.00 A)(5.00 )
5
25
I1 =
=
=
A or
A
R1
(7.00 )
7
7
)
39
or A
7
E = I3 R3 + I2 R2 = (2.00 A)(5.00 ) + (9/7 A) or (39/7 A) (2.00 )
(
)
88
148
=
V or
V
7
7
I2 = I3 I1 = (2.00 A) (5/7 A) or (25/7 A) =
(
9
A
7
References
[1] Raymond A. Serway; John W. Jewett, Jr.: Principles of Physics Vol. 2: 6B / 6C - UCLA,
Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2008)