Chapter 3:

- Principles of Electrical Circuits: Laying

the Foundations

Now that we have laid out the understanding of the elements of an electrical circuit, namely
current, voltage and electrical power, and resistance, we are now ready to move on to the
fundamental principles that govern them, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of
electrical circuits.
Kirchhoffs Laws

When dealing with more complicated circuits that involves multiple electrical devices, we
will have to use Kirchhoffs law to analyse the circuit, stated as follows:
1. Current or Junction Law
Across any junction, the total current flowing in is equal to the current flowing out.
=

The first law is a consequence of conservation of charges, which states that no

charge can be created or destroyed. Hence the total inflow of current must equal to
the total outflow of current.
2. Voltage or Loop Law
Across any loop, the total electromotive force equals to the total potential difference
of all electrical devices connected in that loop with current flowing in the same
direction.
=

The second law is a consequence of conservation of energy, as the total energy put
into the circuit by the electromotive force must equal to the total energy drained out
by the potential differences of the components in a loop.
(Do not get intimidated by the symbol, it simply means sum off)
Kirchhoffs law is a fundamental law when it comes to analysing circuits, so it is important
that you keep that in mind at all times. You can think of it as the Newtons law of electrical
circuits.

In a circuit containing batteries and resistors, Kirchhoffs laws allow us to set up equations
to find the current flowing in the circuit and the voltage of various devices, which we will
get to the calculations shortly.
Also note that if in practice, if the calculated current turns out to be negative, this means
that the current is flowing in the opposite of the specified direction.

Combining Electrical Components: Series and Parallel

With Kirchhoffs law laid out, we can examine how electrical devices can be connected
together in an electrical circuit. Let us first consider a simple case.
Going back to the simple light bulb example with the following circuit
diagram shown on the right. The application of Kirchhoffs laws is
straightforward as there is only one loop and no junctions.
From the first law, we can conclude that the current flowing through
the battery is equal to the current flowing through the light bulb.
From the second law, we can conclude that the batterys electromotive
force is equal to the potential difference of the light bulb as it is the
only device connected, so

. This is why earlier on I assumed the EMF of the battery

is equal to the potential difference of the light bulb.

If two light bulbs (or any other electrical device) are used instead, there are two ways to
connect it in a circuit, series and parallel as shown:

We will analyse them with Kirchhoffs law separately.

In the series circuit, the 2 light bulbs are connected in the same loop. As a consequence the
current flowing through them is the same, and the sum of their potential differences equals
to the electromotive force.
Note that Kirchhoffs law does not tell us what their respective voltage are. For that we will
need to know their resistance. As exemplified by the following example.

Example Two resistors of 2.0 and 4.0

respectively are connected in series to a

9.0

battery as shown on the right.

Find the current flowing through the circuit and the
potential difference across each resistors.
Let

and

2.0

and

be the potential difference across the

4.0

resistor respectively.

= 9.0

By Kirchhoffs 2nd law,

And by Kirchhoffs 1st law, the current flowing through them are the same.
Across each resistors, the voltage of each one is given by

, by combining both laws,

we obtain

2.0

4.0

= 9.0

can then be solved,

6.0
So we have found that a current of

1.5

flowing through the circuit. To find the voltage

across each resistor, we use the equation

and

4.0

= 9.0
= 1.5

. The potential difference across the

2.0

are then

= 1.5
= 1.5
Checking that the sum of

and

2.0 = 3.0
4.0 = 6.0

is equal to

battery, so the results are consistent.

In the parallel circuit, things are different.

9.0

, which is the electromotive force of the

By the 1st law the current flowing through the battery, denoted by

where the subscript

denoted the total current, is the sum of the current flowing through each light bulb labelled
and

respectively. So we can say that

The application of the 2nd law is trickier. As there are two separate loops in which the
resistors are connected in the circuit, denoted by the red arrows, and each light bulbs are the
only electrical device connected in their loops, so we can conclude that the voltage of each
light bulbs is equal to the voltage of the battery (take note of the dual meaning of voltage in
this sentence). In other words, we can say that

and

Just like the case with series circuits, Kirchoffs laws itself are insufficient to tell us what
the current flowing through the light-bulbs are. To determine the current flowing through
we will need to know the light bulbs resistances, as exemplified below:

Example A 1.0 and 2.0 resistor is connected to a 3.0

shown:

battery in a parallel circuit as

Find the current flowing through the resistors and the battery.
According to Kirchhoffs 1st law, as noted earlier, the total current flowing through the
battery is equal to the sum of current flowing through the resistors, so

To apply the second law, we note that in each loop the potential difference across each
resistor is equal to the electromotive force. Since we know their resistance, we can work
out the current flowing through each resistor using the equation

In the loop 1,

While in loop 2,

#.$!

.$%

"

= 3.0

#.$!

.$%

= 1.5

So the current flowing through the battery (the total current) is

= 3.0

1.5 = 4.5

Generally, for devices connected in parallel, they will have the same total potential
differences across them.
For the connection of 2 or more electrical devices, they are usually connected in a
combination of series and parallel manner. Nonetheless the application of Kirchhoffs law
still holds by analysing junctions and loops in circuits.
Finally consider several batteries connected in series:

Once again by Kirchhoffs law, the total electromotive force will add up as each batteries
are supplying electrical energy on its own. Think of it as multiple forces acting in the same
direction, resulting in a stronger net force. The series of batteries can be treated as a single
battery with its EMF equal to the sum of individual batteries EMF.
Of course all the batteries terminals must be aligned, the positive end of a battery must be
connected to the negative end of the other.
What if one of the batteries is connected in reverse? It depends on the construction of the
battery; generally for non-rechargeable batteries it will totally restrict the reverse flow of
current, creating an open circuit. While for rechargeable batteries, it will instead drain away
the voltage and recharge itself.

A Silly Analogy: Pizza Delivery

To help further understand electrical circuits visually, a silly analogy of pizza delivery can
be used to describe the operation of electrical circuit.
Consider a simple resistor circuit connected to a battery along with a switch:

The charges flowing through the circuit can be thought of as pizza-delivery men travelling
around the circuit. The wires are the route for the delivery men to take.
The current is the rate of delivery men travelling pass a certain point in the circuit.
The energy that is transferred through in the circuit can be thought of as the pizza getting
delivered. The battery is the restaurant supplying the pizza to be delivered by the delivery
man, while the resistor (or the light-bulb) is the customers house consuming the pizza.

With this analogy, electromotive force and potential difference can be pictured as the
number of pizzas supplied to and taken away from each pizza-delivery men.
For example
(battery),

1.5

EMF means for each delivery-men passing through the restaurant

1.5 pizzas are supplied to

him. While

1.5

potential difference means for each

delivery-men passing through the customers house (resistor),

1.5 pizzas are taken away

from him.
The electrical power is then simply the rate of pizza delivered, which is given by the
multiplication of current, the number of delivery man travelling around the circuit, and
voltage, the number of pizza delivered by each delivery men given by

&=

Finally the switch can be thought of as a suspension bridge. If it is opened, the delivery
man can go through, while if it is closed, the delivery men can go through.
Kirchhoffs law follows naturally this analogy.

The first law says that in any junction, the total number of delivery men entering the
junction is equal to the number of delivery men exiting the junction.

The second law says that in any loop, the number of pizza supplied to each pizza
delivery men is equal to the number of pizza taken away from each pizza delivery
men. When the delivery men return to the store, all the pizzas should be taken away
from him.

Measuring Current and Voltages

Last but not least, even though we have discussed at length what current and voltages are,
we have not mention any way to measure it.
To measure the current flowing through a circuit, an ammeter is used with the following
symbol:

To measure the flowing through a wire is straight forward,

simply connect in series in the electrical circuit so that the current
can flow through it as shown on the right:
Using the pizza delivery analogy, an ammeter can be thought of
as a pizza men counter, counting the number of pizza men
flowing through the circuit and calculating the rate.
To measure the voltage across an electrical device, a voltmeter is used with the following
symbol:

Unfortunately the measure of voltage is slightly more

complicated; in order to measure the voltage across any electrical
device, it must be connected parallel to it as shown on the right:
The reason for doing so is because in electrical circuit the term
voltage implicitly refers to the electrical energy either supplied
or drained per unit charge flowing through the entire device, so
we will have to measure the energy difference of the charge going in and going out of the
device. This also explains the term potential difference when referring to voltage of
devices that drain of electrical energy.
In practice, ammeter and voltmeter are usually not separate devices but rather combined
together into one to form a multimeter, along with other features such as resistance
measurement. A multimeter can be set into either an ammeter or voltmeter, but not both.
Nonetheless how is it connected to a circuit in order to measure either the current or voltage
stays the same as discussed earlier.