Kirchhoff's Laws

Current and voltage circuit laws

Kirchhoff's Laws quantify how current flows through a circuit and how voltage varies around a
loop in a circuit.
 Kirchhoff's current law (1st Law) states that the current flowing into a node (or a
junction) must be equal to the current flowing out of it. This is a consequence of charge
conservation.
- Current flow in circuits occurs when charge carriers travel around the circuit.
Current is defined as the rate at which this charge passes any point in the circuit.
A fundamental concept in physics is that charge will always be conserved. In the
context of circuits this means that, since current is the rate of flow of charge, the
current flowing into a point must be the same as current flowing out of that point.

Figure 1: Three wires connected at a node with different currents travelling down each wire.
- Kirchhoff's current law states that for the node in Figure 1, the currents in the
three wires must be related by: I1+I2=I3. It is important to note what is meant by
the signs of the current in the diagram - a positive current means that the
currents are flowing in the directions indicated on the diagram. Directions are the
direction in which any positive charges would flow, that is from the + of the
battery round the circuit to the −.
The standard way of displaying Kirchhoff's current law is by having all currents
either flowing towards or away from the node, as shown in Figure 2:
Figure 2: The same node as in Figure 1, but with the currents defined to be pointing inward.
The values I1,I2,I3 can be positive or negative.
 Kirchhoff's voltage law (2nd Law) states that in any complete loop within a circuit, the
sum of all voltages across components which supply electrical energy (such as cells or
generators) must equal the sum of all voltages across the other components in the same
loop. This law is a consequence of both charge conservation and the conservation of
energy.
 Kirchhoff's current law and Kirchhoff's voltage law are the basis for analysis of lumped
parameter circuits. These laws, together with the voltage-current characteristics of the
circuit elements in the system, provide us with the ability to perform a systematic
analysis of any electrical network. This section presents Kirchhoff's voltage law.
 KVL depends upon the concept of a loop. A loop is any closed path through the circuit
which encounters no node more than once. Essentially, to create a loop, start at any
node in the circuit and trace a path through the circuit until you get back to your original
node. The concept of a loop is probably most readily explained through a few simple
examples—which we've provided below.

 Kirchhoff's voltage law (commonly abbreviated as KVL) states:

o The algebraic sum of all voltage differences around any closed loop is zero.

 An alternate statement of this law is:

o The sum of the voltage rises around a closed loop must equal the sum of the
voltage drops around the loop.
 Or even:
o When going around a loop, you have to get back to the same voltage you started
with.

 Note
 Voltage polarities in the loop are based on assumed polarities of the voltage differences
in the loop. As long as the assumed directions of the voltages are consistent from loop to
loop, the final result of the analysis will reflect the actual voltage polarities in the circuit.

 Example 2:
 In the figure below, the assumed polarities of the voltages V 1, V2, V3, V4, V5, and V6 are
as shown. There are three possible loops in the circuit: a-b-e-d-a , a-b-c-e-d-a , and b-c-
e-b. We will apply KVL to each of these loops.

 Our sign convention for applying signs to the voltage polarities in our KVL equations will
be as follows: when traversing the loop, if the positive terminal of a voltage difference is
encountered before the negative terminal, the voltage difference will be interpreted
as positive in the KVL equation. If the negative terminal is encountered first, the voltage
difference will be interpreted as negative in the KVL equation. We use this sign
convention for convenience; it is not required for proper application of KVL, as long as
the signs on the voltage differences are treated consistently.

 Applying KVL to the loop a-b-e-d-a , and using our sign convention as above results in:
V1−V4−V6−V3=0
 The starting point of the loop and the direction that we loop in is arbitrary; we could
equivalently write the same loop equation as loop d-e-b-a-d , in which case our equation
would become:
V6+V4−V1+V3=0V
 This equation is identical to the previous equation, the only difference is that the signs of
all variables have changed and the variables appear in a different order in the equation.
We now apply KVL to the loop b-c-e-b, which results in:
−V2+V5+V4=0
 Finally, application of KVL to the loop a-b-c-e-d-a provides:
V1−V2+V5−V6−V3=0

Important Point
Kirchhoff's voltage law states that the sum of the voltage differences around any closed loop
in a circuit must be zero. A loop in a circuit is any path which ends at the same point at
which it starts.

Test Your Knowledge

1. What is the voltage V in the circuit below?

2. What is the voltage V in the circuit below?

3. What is the voltage V in the circuit below? (Hint: this is a trick question.)

4. What are the voltages V1, V2, and V3 in the circuit below?