Basic Laws of Electric Circuits

NEE 311

PREPARED BY:
ENGR. GERALDINE B. TUALLA
 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

A branch
 represents a single
element such as a
voltage source or a
resistor.

 represents any two-

terminal element.
Fig 1: A circuit with 5 branches
 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

A node
 is the point of
connection between
two or more
branches.
Fig 1: Nodes, branches, and loops.
 A node is usually
indicated by a dot in a
circuit

Fig2: The three-node circuit of Fig. 1 is

redrawn.
 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

A loop
 is any closed path in a
circuit.

 A loop is a closed path formed

by starting at a node, passing
through a set of nodes, and
returning to the starting node Figure 2
without passing through any
node more than once.
 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

A loop
 A loop is said to be
independent if it
contains at least one
branch which is not a part
of any other independent
loop.
Figure 2
 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

The relationship between nodes, branches and loops can

be expressed as follows:

Where:
b branches
n nodes
l independent loops
 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

 Two or more elements are in series if they

exclusively share a single node and consequently
carry the same current.
 Two or more elements are in parallel if they are
connected to the same two nodes and consequently
have the same voltage across them.
 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

1. Determine the number of branches and nodes in the

circuit shown

a.)

ans. Four branches, 3 nodes,

 Nodes, Branches, and Loops

1. Determine the number of branches and nodes in

the circuit shown

b.)

ans. 5 branches, 3 nodes,

 Kirchhoff’s Laws

 Kirchhoff’s laws were first

introduced in 1847 by the
German physicist Gustav
Robert Kirchhoff.
 These laws are formally
known as Kirchhoff’s current
law (KCL) and Kirchhoff’s
voltage law (KVL
 Kirchhoff’s first law is based on the law of conservation
of charge, which requires that the algebraic sum of
charges within a system cannot change.
 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL)

 states that the algebraic sum of currents

entering a node (or a closed boundary) is
zero.
Mathematically, KCL implies that:

where N is the number of branches

connected to the node and is
the nth current entering (or leaving) the
node.
 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL)

 By this law, currents entering a node may be regarded
as positive, while currents leaving the node may be
taken as negative or vice versa.

Applying KCL gives:

By rearranging the terms, we get

 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL)

 The sum of the currents entering a node is

equal to the sum of the currents leaving the
node.

Note: that KCL also applies to a closed boundary

 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Kirchhoff’s voltage law (KVL)

 states that the algebraic sum of all voltages around a
closed path (or loop) is zero.

Expressed mathematically, KVL states that

where M is the number of voltages in the

loop (or the number of branches in the
loop) and Vm is the mth voltage.
Kirchhoff’s Laws

Kirchhoff’s voltage law (KVL)

KVL yields

Rearranging terms gives

which may be interpreted as:

Sum of voltage drops = Sum of voltage rises

 Kirchhoff’s Laws
Sign Convention for Kirchhoff’s law:

 Current towards the node, positive current

 Current away from the node, negative current
 In a voltage source, if loop enters on minus and goes out on
plus, positive emf
 In a voltage source, if loop enters on plus and goes out on
minus, negative emf
 In a resistance, if a loop direction is the same as the current
direction, negative resistance voltage drop.
 In a resistance, if a loop direction is opposite to current
direction, positive resistance voltage drop.
Sample Problems

Ans. -8V, 12V

Sample Problems

Ans. 48V , -8A

Sample Problems

Ans. 3A ,2A, 1A, 24V, 6V, 6V

Sample Problems