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Physics Tutorial 15.5 - Kirchhoff Laws

There are 4 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Kirchhoff Laws. The tutorial starts with an introduction to Kirchhoff Laws and is then followed with a list of the separate lessons, the tutorial is designed to be read in order but you can skip to a specific lesson or return to recover a specific physics lesson as required to build your physics knowledge of Kirchhoff Laws. you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.

In this Physics tutorial, you will learn:

  • What are junctions, nodes, paths, branches and loops in a circuit?
  • What happens to currents in a node of the circuit?
  • What happens to the electromotive force when two sources are installed in the opposite way in a conducting wire?
  • How the energy conservation law is applied in complex circuits?
  • What procedure do we use to solve complex circuits?

Introduction

Look at around in your room. How many power sources do you see? Are all at the same place or they are distributed throughout the room?

Is it possible that two currents converge at a single point? What happens in this case? Use the analogy with water to answer this question.

What would happen if there were two or more sources that produce currents in opposite directions in a circuit? Do you think there would be the apocalypse? Why? Why not?

This tutorial is focused on complex circuits, in which Ohm's Law cannot be applied. In such circuits we use two other laws, known as Kirchhoff Laws, which provide satisfactory answers to a lot of situations involving more complicated circuit setups.

Please select a specific "Kirchhoff Laws" lesson from the table below, review the video tutorial, print the revision notes or use the practice question to improve your knowledge of this physics topic.

Electrodynamics Learning Material
Tutorial IDPhysics Tutorial TitleTutorialVideo
Tutorial
Revision
Notes
Revision
Questions
15.5Kirchhoff Laws
Lesson IDPhysics Lesson TitleLessonVideo
Lesson
15.5.1Junctions, Nodes, Paths, Branches and Loops
15.5.2Kirchhoff's Current Law
15.5.3Kirchhoff's Voltage Law
15.5.4Solving Complex Circuits using the Kirchhoff Laws

Whats next?

Enjoy the "Kirchhoff Laws" physics tutorial? People who liked the "Kirchhoff Laws" tutorial found the following resources useful:

  1. Physics tutorial Feedback. Helps other - Leave a rating for this tutorial (see below)
  2. Electrodynamics Revision Notes: Kirchhoff Laws. Print the notes so you can revise the key points covered in the physics tutorial for Kirchhoff Laws
  3. Electrodynamics Practice Questions: Kirchhoff Laws. Test and improve your knowledge of Kirchhoff Laws with example questins and answers
  4. Check your calculations for Electrodynamics questions with our excellent Electrodynamics calculators which contain full equations and calculations clearly displayed line by line. See the Electrodynamics Calculators by iCalculator™ below.
  5. Continuing learning electrodynamics - read our next physics tutorial: Electric Power and Efficiency

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