Series Resistors and Voltage Division
Consider the circuit below
0R Where
The circuit can be replaced by
1
The equivalent resistance of any number of resistors connected in series is the sum
• of the individual resistances.
For N resistors in series then,
We can calculate the voltage across each resistor as,
Notice that 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, and the circuit in Fig. is called a voltage
divider.
For N resistors connected in series, the resistor will have a voltage drop of
2
• Parallel Resistors and Current Division
Consider the circuit below, where two resistors are connected in parallel and therefore
have the same voltage across them. From Ohm’s law
where is the equivalent resistance of the resistors in parallel:
OR OR
The equivalent resistance of two parallel resistors is equal to the product of their
resistances divided by their sum.
• For N resistors connected in parallel,
•
is always smaller than the resistance of the smallest
resistor in the parallel combination
– For Parallel connected resistors
The equivalent conductance of resistors connected in parallel is the
sum of their individual conductance.
For series connected resistors.
Given the circuit before, how we can calculate and ?
= &=
which shows that the total current i is shared by the resistors in inverse
proportion to their resistances. This is known as the principle of current
division.
• The circuit is known as a current divider. Notice that the larger current flows
through the smaller resistance.
1. The equivalent resistance = 0
2. The entire current flows through the
short circuit.
• For the equation= & =
•
Divide both the numerator and denominator by
Thus, in general, if a current divider has N conductors , ….. in parallel with the
source current i, the nth conductor ( ) will have current:
In general, it is often convenient and possible to combine resistors in series and
parallel and reduce a resistive network to a single equivalent resistance .
Example: Calculate the equivalent resistance in the circuit below
Ans. 11.2 Ω
Reading Assignment
Wye-Delta Transformations