Experiment:4 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Ema

40254008

Department Of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Phys 225

June 06, 2024

Introduction:
Kirchhoff's law was used in this experiment to determine the current in a circuit with multiple

branches. Kirchhoff's law refers to two fundamental principles known as junction rule and loop

rule,

These laws are used to analyze and solve electrical circuits.

For junction rule, states that the sum of currents entering and exiting a node (or a junction) in an

electrical circuit is equal to zero. In other words, the total current flowing into a node must be

equal to the total current flowing out of it. This law is based on the principle of conservation of

charge, as the

total charge entering a node must be conserved, it could be written as SIin = SIout

Furthermore, another principle is the loop rule, which states that the sum of the voltages around

any closed loop in an electrical circuit is equal to zero. In simpler terms, the sum of the voltage

rises, and voltage drops encountered along a closed loop must be zero. This law is based on the

principle of conservation of energy, as the total energy supplied to a closed loop should be equal

to the total energy consumed

within that loop. It could be stated as SV = 0.

In addition, the sign of the resistor's voltage in the loop rule changes depending on the direction

of the loop. If the loop is crossing a resistor in the same direction as a current, then the change of

voltage could be written as -IR. If the loop crosses through the opposite direction of the current,

the change of voltage would be +IR. Therefore, the sign of voltage in the supply power also

depends on the direction of the loop. If the loop crosses through the voltage from its negative

side to its positive side, the voltage is added on, on the other hand, if the loop crosses through the

voltage from its positive side to the negative side, the voltage is shown as negative sign.
In this experiment, four resistances and 2 power suppliers were used to verify Kirchhoff's law,

and then those values of resistances and power supplier were measured by multimeter

individually and connected with a multimeter in series to measure the current with symbols, as

such, we could justify the direction of current then verify the loop rule. as the picture was shown

on lab manual, there are 3 loops in the circuit with 2 different power supplies which we must

determine the actual values by multimeter, then we have 4 different resistances we are going to

measure individually with a multimeter as well. Since these two power supplies with opposite

directions, therefore we have 2 types of the direction of current. Since it passed R1 from V1, then

became I2 went through R2 and R3, I4 came from V3 and passed R4 with opposite directions of

11, 12, and 13. Hence, the equations which are used to verify the Kirchhoff's Rule are:

I23 R23 -I1 R1 -V=0>>>>>1

V2 -I4R4-I1R1-V1=0>>>>2

Result:

Expected Current (A) Experimental Current (A) Uncertainty

(A)

I1 -0.007 0.0076 ± 0.00031

I2 0.061 -0.0241 ± 0.00016

I3 0.075 ± 0.00025
-0.0298

I4 0.055 0.0446 ± 0.00087

Table 1: Comparison of expected and experimental current

 Resistance (ohm) Experimental

Resistance (ohm)

R1 20 19.8

R2 50 50.2

R3 40 40.1

R4 30 30.5

Table 2: Comparison of expected and experimental resistance

Given Voltage (V) Experimental Voltage

(V)

V1 1.5 1.49 (closed), 1.51

(open)

V2 3 2.86 (closed), 2.96

(open)

Table 3: The experimental value of power supplies

For the theoretical values of each current, the quick equations will be used as:

Loop rule:

I23 R23 -I1 R1 -V=0>>>>>1

V2 -I4R4-I1R1-V1=0>>>>2

Junction rule: I4=I23+I1

The whole calculation of finding the currents using the Kirchhoff laws is given in the picture

below:
 Figure: 1

Discussion:

During this experiment, four resistances and 2 power supplies were used to determine the current

of each circuit, then the loop rule and junction rule were used to determine the theoretical current

by using those equations shown in the result section. The theoretical values were calculated as -

0.007,0.061,0.075 and 0.0054 amp indicated from I1 to I4 respectively. The experimental values

that we measured are 0.0076, -0.0241, -0.0298, and 0.0446 indicated from I1 to I4 respectively.

In addition, the negative sign indicates the direction of each current, then I1 and I4 have the same

direction, and 12 and I3 have the same direction but there are disagreements on the value of Il

and I4, which don't fall in with the expected value.

The12 and I3 perfectly don’t agree with the theoretical values which are. But I1 and I4 fall in

agreement with each other theoretical values two values are agreed with
theoretical values, but the values that we measured still obey the loop rule.

The experimental error may be caused by several reasons. First, the reading of the ruler may

cause experimental error. For example, in the multimeter that we used to measure the current, the

range that we were supposed to use was 200 mA, but the current range didn't work though, then

we switched to the 10A range, which might have caused the inaccurate current, to avoid the

accuracy, we could use another multimeter, that might get improvement in this experiment.

In addition, the error may be caused by the temperature of the resistance itself. Even though we

closed the switch every time after we reconnected the multimeter every time, the increase in

temperature still could not be avoided. Therefore, a lack of accuracy might happen.

Conclusion:

The goal of this experiment is to determine the current of each circuit by using Kirchhoff's law.

there are two values of Il and 14 that agree with the theoretical values that we calculated but not

I2 and I3. Both experimental and theoretical values are obeyed with the loop rule and junction

rule. In addition, there still are some experimental errors that can be avoided and improved. For

example, the problem of multimeter, and the increasing temperature of resistances.