Electrical Circuits

An electrical circuit is made up of batteries, wires, and resistors. Batteries are a source of voltage; wires are conductors of current, which is produced when electrons flow; and resistors are voltage drops that convert electrical energy into thermal energy. An example of a simple resistor is a light bulb (Kolman, 144-145). The voltage of a battery is measured in volts (V) and is the electrical potential difference across the battery terminals. Current (I) is measured in amperes (A) or Coulombs per second, which means simply units of charge per second. The Coulombs of charge per second running through a certain point determine the current at that point, and one ampere is equal to one Coulomb per second. Resistance (R) is measured in Ohms. For example, a higher wattage light bulb has a higher resistance (Kolman, 145). Voltage is related to current and resistance by Ohms law, which says: V=IR The sign is determined by the direction in which the potential difference is measured. If its measured in the same direction as the current, a negative sign is used. If its measured against the current flow, the positive symbol is used. In other words, direction of potential difference is arbitrary (Kolman 145). Circuits have what are called current nodes and voltage loops, which are important in organizing and determining the way circuits follow Kirchoffs laws. A voltage loop is a closed loop of a circuit. Here an example of a circuit:

Example 1 (image taken from Kolman, 128)

In the following diagram, the batteries are circled. The longer line represents the positive side of the battery, and the shorter represents the negative side. The resistors are enclosed with rectangles. The lines represent wires (Kolman, 145).

The voltage loops in Example 1 are: 1) a b e f a 2) b c d e b and 3) a b c d e f a

The current node is a point where three or more wires are congregated. The nodes of Example 1 are b and e:

Just as conservation of energy is true for other closed systems like collisions, it also works for electrical circuits! The conservation of energy reinvented and applied to circuits is what physicists call Kirchoffs voltage law. It says that the total electrical potential difference around a voltage loop is zero (Kolman, 145). Conservation of charge also applies to circuits and in context is entitled Kirchoffs current law. Kirchoffs current law says that the sum of the current going into a node minus the current going out of a node is zero (Kolman, 145). These simple relations allow us to solve for the current and other unknowns at various points in the circuit. Using the relations, we will create a system of linear equations relating the unknowns and solve the linear system to find the value of each variable. (For the remainder of the paper, Kolman, 146-147 were used for formatting and problem solving technique.) First we determine all the areas with different currents. To do this, we look at each place between two current nodes and assign a different current to each. We picked: I1 for e f a b I2 for e b I3 for e d c b We also assigned variables arbitrarily (to elucidate the math) as shown below. The arrows correspond to the direction of the current.

Using Kirchoffs current law, we can relate the various currents to each other. Kirchoffs current law says that the current coming into a node is equal to the current leaving a node. I1 and I3 are flowing into node b, and I2 is leaving node b. From this, we can form the equation (1) I1 + I3 = I2

Looking at node e, we see that I2 is going into node e, and I1 and I3 are leaving it. So we can form the equation I2 = I1 + I3, which is just the same as equation (1). Next, we can apply Kirchoffs voltage law, which says that the total potential difference in a voltage loop is equal to zero. First analyzing voltage loop a b e f a, E1 (R1I1) E3 (R2I1) = 0 R1I1 comes from using Ohms law to figure the voltage drop over resistor 1. The same goes for R2I1. The signs are negative, because when encountering a resistor, the voltage drops. When encountering a battery going opposite the current flow (i.e., oriented from positive to negative, rather than negative to positive), the sign is also negative. This is why E3 is subtracted as well. Substituting the corresponding values into the equation, we get: 60 3I1 80 I1 = 0 Solving for I1: (2) I1 = - 5 A

The negative sign indicates that the direction of current flow is opposite of what we assigned it. The value is the same, but the current is flowing from a f, instead of f a as we originally chose (arbitrarily). At this point, we can solve for I2 by substituting the value for I1 back into (1). Doing so, we get I2 = 8 A. Next, we analyze voltage loop b c d e b. From this we derive the equation: E3 (R4I2) E2 (R3I2) = 0 After substituting the corresponding values and rearranging/combining terms: (3) 5I2 + E2 = 80 At this point, we can substitute the value of I2 into (3) to find the value of E2. Doing so, we get E2 = 40 V. For the third voltage loop, a b c d e f a, the equation is merely a linear combination of (2) and (3), so it can be omitted. In general, this is true for larger voltage loops that include two or more other loops. Besides, all of the unknowns have already been solved using substitution. Matrices can also be used and are especially helpful for larger and even more complex circuits where substitution would be particularly difficult. The augmented matrix for this system using (1), (2) and (3) with I1 as the first column, I2 as the second, and E2 as the third is as follows:

After row reducing to row reduced echelon form, we get:

This matrix verifies the values we have already found for the system: I1 = 5 A from a f (again, the negative just means that the current is in the direction opposite of what we originally assigned it), I2 = 8 A from c d, and E2 = 40 V. Therefore, linear algebra is essential for solving circuits, and matrices are invaluable for solving complex circuits.

Source: Kolman, B., Hill, D. (2005). Introductory Linear Algebra: An Applied First Course 8/E. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.