Kandahar University

Engineering Faculty
Energy Department

Chapter 2
Basic Laws

Lecturer: Eng. Abdul Majeed Azizi Date : 2023 / 5 / 27

1. Introduction
2. Ohm’s Law
3. Nodes, Branches, and Loops
4. Kirchhoff’s Laws
5. Series Resistors and Voltage Division
6. Parallel Resistors and Current Division
7. Wye-Delta Transformations

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 1. Introduction
➢ Chapter 1 introduced basic concepts such as current, voltage, and power in an
electric circuit.
➢ To actually determine the values of these variables in a given circuit requires
that we understand some fundamental laws that govern electric circuits.
➢ These laws, are known as Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff’s laws.
➢ Some techniques combine:
1. Resistors in series or parallel.
2. voltage division, current division.
3. delta-to-wye and wye-to-delta transformations.

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 2. Ohm’s Law
➢ Materials in general have a characteristic behavior of resisting the flow of
electric charge.
➢ This physical property, or ability to resist current, is known as resistance and is
represented by the symbol R.
➢ The resistance of any material with a uniform cross-sectional area A depends on
A and its length , as shown in Figure.

➢ Where ƿ is known as the resistivity

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 2. Ohm’s Law
➢ Good conductors, such as copper and aluminum, have low resistivities.
➢ While insulators, such as mica and paper, have high resistivities.
➢ Table 2.1 presents the values of ρ for some common materials.

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Cont.
➢ The circuit element used to model the current-resisting behavior of a material is
the resistor.
➢ Georg Simon Ohm (1787–1854), a German physicist, is credited with finding
the relationship between current and voltage for a resistor.
➢ This relationship is known as Ohm’s law.
➢ Ohm’s law states that the voltage across a resistor is directly proportional to the
current flowing through the resistor.
➢ Ohm defined the constant of proportionality for a resistor to be the resistance.
Thus, Eq. becomes:

➢ The resistance R of an element denotes its ability to resist the flow of electric
current; it is measured in ohms .

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Cont.
➢ Since the value of R can range from zero to infinity, it is important that we
consider the two extreme possible values of R.
➢ An element with R= 0 is called a short circuit, as shown in Fig.
➢ For a short circuit showing that the voltage is zero but the current could be
anything.

➢ A short circuit is a circuit element with resistance approaching zero.

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Cont.
➢ Similarly, an element with R=∞ is known as an open circuit, as shown in Fig.

➢ Indicating that the current is zero though the voltage could be anything.
➢ Thus, An open circuit is a circuit element with resistance approaching infinity.

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Cont.
➢ A resistor is either fixed or variable
➢ Most resistors are of the fixed type, meaning their resistance remains constant.
➢ The two common types of fixed resistors (wire-wound and composition).

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Cont.
➢ Variable resistors have adjustable resistance.
➢ A common variable resistor is known as a potentiometer or pot.
➢ Variable resistors can be of either wire wound or composition type.
➢ Today most circuit components including resistors are either surface mounted or
integrated.

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Cont.
➢ A resistor that obeys Ohm’s law is known as a linear resistor.
➢ It has a constant resistance
➢ A nonlinear resistor does not obey Ohm’s law. Its resistance varies with current.

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Cont.
➢ A useful quantity in circuit analysis is the reciprocal of resistance R, known as
conductance and denoted by G:
➢ The conductance is a measure of how well an element will conduct electric
current.
➢ Conductance is the ability of an element to conduct electric current.

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Cont.
➢ The unit of conductance is the mho. in this book we prefer to use the siemens
(S), the SI unit of conductance:

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Cont. Example

An electric iron draws 2 A at 120 V. Find its resistance.

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 Example
Calculate the current I, conductance G, and the power p.

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 3. Nodes, Branches, and Loops
➢ A branch represents a single element such as a voltage source or a resistor.
➢ A node is the point of connection between two or more branches.
➢ A loop is any closed path in a circuit.

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 3. 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.

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Cont. Example
Determine the number of branches and nodes in the circuit shown in Fig.
Identify which elements are in series and which are in parallel.

Solution:

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 4. Kirchhoff’s Laws
➢ Ohm’s law by itself is not sufficient to analyze circuits. However, when it is
coupled with Kirchhoff’s two laws, we have a sufficient, powerful set of tools
for analyzing a large variety of electric circuits.
➢ 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.

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Cont.
➢ Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL) states that the algebraic sum of currents entering a
node (or a closed boundary) is zero.
➢ By this law, currents entering a node may be regarded as positive
➢ And currents leaving the node may be taken as negative.
➢ The sum of the currents entering a node is equal to the sum of the currents
leaving the node.

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Cont.
➢ Kirchhoff’s second law is based on the principle of conservation of energy:
➢ 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:

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Cont.
➢ When voltage sources are connected in series, KVL can be applied to obtain
the total voltage.
➢ The combined voltage is the algebraic sum of the voltages of the individual
sources.

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Cont. Example
For the circuit in Fig, find voltages v1 and v2.

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 5. Series Resistors and Voltage Division
➢ The source voltage v is divided among the resistors in direct proportion to their
resistances.
➢ The larger the resistance, the larger the voltage drop.
➢ This is called the principle of voltage division

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 6. Parallel Resistors and Current Division
➢ The equivalent resistance of two parallel resistors is equal to the product of
their resistances divided by their sum.

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Cont. Example
Find i0 and v0 in the circuit shown in Fig. Calculate the power dissipated in the
3- resistor.

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 7. Wye-Delta Transformations
➢ Situations often arise in circuit analysis when the resistors are neither in parallel
nor in series. For example, consider the bridge circuit in Fig. How do we
combine resistors R1 through R6 when the resistors are neither in series nor in
parallel? So we can use wye-delta transformation to simplify.

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Cont.
➢ The formulas for a delta-to-wye transformation are:

➢ The formulas for a wye-to-delta transformation are:

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Cont. Example
➢ Convert the delta network in Fig to an equivalent Y network.

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Assignment
Solve all practice problems!

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