Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL)

Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL) can be intuitively understood using the river
analogy (Fig. 5.1). Rivers sometimes merge and split into other branches, like in
Fig. 5.2.

Fig. 5.1 A cartoon depiction

of KCL using traffic

Since there is nowhere else for the water to go, the total amount of water flowing
into a region is equal to the total amount of water flowing out. For the example given
in Fig. 5.2, this means that

i1 þ i2 ¼ i3 þ i4 þ i5 ,

where the water currents are labeled as i1, i2, . . ., i5. Likewise, by KCL, the total
current entering a junction of an electric circuit is equal to the total current exiting

# The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 31

G. L. Zeng, M. Zeng, Electric Circuits,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60515-5_5
32 5 Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL)

i1 i3

i4

i5
i2

Fig. 5.2 Rivers merge and fork

that junction. A junction can either be a node or a supernode. A node is an

uninterrupted stretch of wire that connects two or more circuit elements, while a
supernode is a portion of the circuit that may contain multiple elements.

Example
Write the KCL expressions for the supernode and the node marked in Fig. 5.3
using i1, i2, i3, i4, and i5.

Fig. 5.3 KCL can be applied to a node or a supernode, which are marked with the dotted lines
Exercise Problems 33

Solution
For the supernode, we use KCL to set the total current entering the supernode equal
to the total current exiting the supernode, obtaining the expression:

i1 þ i3 ¼ i2 þ i4 :

For the node, we use the same process to get

i1 þ i5 ¼ i2 :

Notes
Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL) is based on the principle of conservation of
electric charge. The sum of the current entering a junction is equal to the sum
of the current leaving a junction.

Exercise Problems

Problem 5.1 Use KCL to verify if the following circuit is valid.

Fig. P5.1
34 5 Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL)

Problem 5.2 Use KCL to verify if the following circuit is valid.

Fig. P5.2

Problem 5.3 Set up the KCL equations for the following Wheatstone bridge circuit.

Fig. P5.3
Exercise Problems 35

Problem 5.4 Find the current i1 in the circuit shown in Fig. P5.4.

Fig. P5.4

Problem 5.5 This circuit model a transistor, which has many applications such as
amplifiers. Find ib.

Fig. P5.5

Solutions to Exercise problems are given in Book Appendix.