Question

Part A) For Kirchhoff's voltage rule, if done an experiment to measure the current around the circuit to verify the rule, does the instrumental errors account for any measurement discrepancy? discuss.

Part B) For Kirchhoff's current rule, does the current in and out of each node match? If not, does your instrumental error account for the mismatch? Discuss.

Answer 1

Part A) Kirchoff's Voltage Law, which states that the algebraic sum of the voltage drops for a closed loop is zero, was found to be accurate to within 1% error when applied to the low resistance circuit, but when it applied to the high resistance circuit it gives errors of 10 to 20%. The reason for this discrepancy is not understood, but is believed to be related to the operation of the voltmeter when used to measure voltages across large resistances. With the exception of the voltage law applied to high resistance circuits, we conclude that Kirchhoff’s Laws accurately predict the behavior of resistive circuits.

Part B) Yes it is found that the current in and out of each node match. And if it does not then we do not account the intrumental error since we take the refrence point is zero and our calculation can be wrong.