Okay, we're going to use the techniques

that you learned earlier in the lecture

today, to look at a much more complicated
problem.
And this is actually the last homework
problem, and I'm going to leave the bulk
of the work to you.
But I want to talk a little bit about it,
and show you how to set it up and how to
go about this problem.
This is actually an example of nodal
analysis.
Which is a, a, a general technique used
to find the currents.
And, and then the voltages in circuits.
Now, this particular circuit
configuration is something called a
bridge circuit.
it's built out of these two strings of
resistors.
And then the midpoints of these two
voltage dividers are connected by another
resistor.
Now, the values that I put on the
resistors were 1 ohm for these three and
2 ohms over here.
If this one were also 1 ohm, then this
would be a very simple circuit to
understand.
What happens then is, there's a voltage
up here that's common to both of these
branches, and both ends of the branches
are grounded down here.
And so if this were, if these were all 1
ohm, then these would just be voltage
dividers, and I'd have half of the
voltage up here.
Showing up at a, and I also have half of
the voltage up here showing up at b.
So then, a and b would be at the same
voltage in that case.
And in that case, there wouldn't be any
current flowing here, and the, the, and
that simplifies everything quite a bit
because then if I, if there's no current
I can just take that out, and then I can
just take the series combination of, of
this and this.
And put that in parallel with this, and
figure out this resistance, and then the
current is easy to find.
But, if I'm a little bit perverse about
this, and I make this resistor have a
different value, then that throws
everything out of balance and there's
going to be some current flowing here.
In fact, you use this circuit, this
circuit is used for measuring
resistances.
If I put a resistor in here and I don't

know its value.

I can, by measuring this current, I can
figure our this unknown value of this
resistor.
And in fact, this is used a lot in
sensing circuits.
You might have something who's, a sensor
who's resistance changes a little bit.
And you can put that element in this
bridge circuit.
And then monitor what's happening to this
resistance by looking at this current.
Well, that's an aside, but what I want to
show you is how to set this up.
Now, the systematic way to go about this,
is I have six independent currents in
this, or six different currents that are
all linked together through the set of
equations, but there's six currents in
all of the different branches of this
circuit.
So, what I need to do is figure out how
to write down six equations that I can
then solve.
Now, if I start looking around here and
think about how, where can I apply
Kirchhoff's Current Law and where can I
apply Kirchhoff's Voltage Law, I can see
where I'm going to get those equations.
Now one place is, I can use Kirchhoff's
Voltage Law and go around this loop here.
On the left, I can then go around this
loop and around this loop, and that will
give me three equations.
Then, I can use Kirchhoff's current law
by looking at this node up here.
And, taking the algebraic sum of all the
currents going into that node and making
that 0.
Then I can do the same thing at this node
and that node.
And so, that'll give me six equations,
all together.
So, let's take a, take a minute and try
to write down these equations.
So let's see I start off on this loop
over here that we'll call that loop a.
Let me get myself working here.
So we'll call this A, and we're going to
go around this way.
So if I go around that loop a, I'm going
to go through the battery first and I
pick up 12 volts, plus 12 volts, then I'm
going through this resistor in the
direction that the current is flowing,
and so I am going to lose.
Let me erase that and start over again,
sorry.
So I'm going to go around this loop I'll
call a.

And so I pick up 12 volts, and then I'm

going through this resistor in the
direction of the current, so there's a
voltage drop.
That is 2 times the current, two i.
Now, I'm going through this resistor in
the direction of the current, so there is
a voltage drop which is 1 ohm times i2.
And then, to complete the loop, I'm going
through this resistor, and there's an
additional voltage drop that is 1 ohm
times i3, and those have to add up to 0.
So that's this loop A.
Now, if I go over here and go around this
loop, and I'll call that b.
So this is A, B, now this gets messy,
because when I'm going around this loop.
I'm going through some of these resistors
in the direction of the indicated
current.
But when I go through this resistor here,
I'm going opposite the direction
indicated.
So, voltage, when I go with the current,
it's a negative voltage.
If I go opposite the current.
I'm going from the low to the high side
of that resistor.
It's a positive voltage.
So let's start at this point, A.
And go around and come back to A.
So, I'll go up through the, that 1 ohm
resistor that i2 is flowing through.
And I'm going to go opposite the
direction, so there's going to be a
voltage picked up, which is i2 times that
1 ohm.
Now I'm going down through this one ohm
resistor in the direction that i4 has
indicated, so that's going to be minus 1
times i4.
And then, I'm going through this ten ohm
resistor in the direction indicated by
i1, so that's going to give me minus 10
times i1, and that has to be zero.
Now to complete our set of equations I'll
go around loop C.
So, if I start down here at ground, first
I'm going up through this resistor
opposite the direction of i3.
And so, that's going to be i3 times 1
ohm.
Now I'm going through the ten ohm
resistor opposite the direction of i1, so
that's going to be plus 10i1, because I'm
going counter the direction of the
voltage drop, so I go from the minus to
the plus side.
So this is, this is the plus side, this
is the minus side of that resistor.

The current goes from plus to minus so

that's that, and then I go down through
this 2 ohm resistor.
so I have a voltage drop.
So it's 2 times i5, and that equals zero.
Now, those are the 3 KVL, Kirchhoff's
Voltage Law equations.
Now, let's go here and look at a.
If I take everything, every current
flowing into a is positive, currents
flowing out are negative, and so, at node
a I have I2 flowing in.
I have I1 flowing in, and then, I have I3
flowing out.
So those add up to 0, then at B, I have
I1 flowing in.
I'm sorry, i4 flowing in, right up here.
Then I have i1 and i5 flowing out.
So, this is minus i1 minus i5.
Then there's one node left, and that's up
here, this node.
We'll call that little c.
And then at node c, I have i flowing in,
and then I have i2.
And i4 flowing out.
Okay, and so I get those three equations
using Kirchhoff's Current Law.
Now, it's all set up.
There's nothing left but some hard work
to solve this.
We have the unknowns here are i, and then
i1 through i5, and there's six different
variables we're looking for once we found
all of these current, it's easy then to
find this voltage.
This is the reference, so it's just going
to be this current, i3, times 1 ohm.
That's going to tell me this voltage, and
this one is going to be what ever i5 is
time 2 ohms, that's 2 times i5 higher
than the ground.
And so it's easy to find those.
So the problem that you have to solve
then, is to solve this set of equations.
So if you know some linear algebra, you
can do it in that method.
Or you can just do it by substitution.
Now, let me give you a hint here.
What you have to do is, to solve a set of
equations like this, is you just have to
systematically get rid of variables until
you get down to one equation and one
unknown, and you, you solve that one.
And then, you work backwards,
subsituiting back in finding the, the,
the the variables that you eliminated
along the way.
Now the way to start is take a look, look
for the equations, look for the variables
that appears in the least number of

equations, and start there.

And so I look at and I see i5 only
appears in two equations.
So then I can take this equation, I can
solve it for i5.
So that's i5 equals i4 minus i1.
Then I can substitute that in up here And
work out whatever that is.
So it's i3 plus 10 i1 minus 2 times i5.
It's 2 minus 2i4, and then minus 2 times
minus 1, so it's plus 2i1, and that's
equal to 0.
So, now I've gotten a new set of
equations where I've got this one
equation here that doesn't have i5 in it
anymore.
I forget these two equations for now this
one and this one.
And so now I've got one, two, three,
four, five equations with five unknowns.
And you just keep chipping away at it
that way.
eliminating variables til you get down
to, to one equation.
So, have fun.
This is going to keep you busy probably
until next week.
So this is a you know, this is kind of a
sophomore level circuit analysis course
that you'd get in a college course.
And it's just finding the solution is a,
a testament to your perseverance and
ability to do algebra without messing up.
Good luck.