VERIFICATION OF KCL & CURRENT DIVIDER RULE

Title: Verification of KCL & Current Divider Rule

Objective: The objective of this experiment is to verify Kirchhoff's Current Law (KCL) and the Current Divider Rule. These laws are fundamental principles of electrical circuit analysis and are used to calculate the flow of current in a circuit.

Equipment:

·         DC power supply

·         Breadboard

·          Resistors (1kΩ, 2.2kΩ, 3.3kΩ)

·         Multimeter

·         Connecting wires

Theory: Kirchhoff's Current Law (KCL) states that the sum of currents flowing into a node in a circuit is equal to the sum of currents flowing out of the node. In other words, the algebraic sum of currents at any junction in a circuit is zero.

The Current Divider Rule is used to calculate the current flowing through each branch of a circuit. It states that the current in any branch of a parallel circuit is proportional to the inverse of its resistance.

Procedure:

1.      Set up the circuit as shown in Figure 1 below, using the breadboard and connecting wires.

2.      Connect the power supply to the breadboard and turn it on.

3.      Measure the voltage across each resistor using the multimeter, and record the values in Table 1.

4.      Calculate the current flowing through each resistor using Ohm's Law (I = V/R), and record the values in Table 1.

5.      Verify KCL by calculating the algebraic sum of currents at each node in the circuit. The sum should be equal to zero.

6.      Verify the Current Divider Rule by comparing the calculated current through each branch to the measured current through each branch. The calculated and measured values should be close to each other.

Results:

Table 1: Voltage and current measurements

Resistor	Voltage (V)	Current (mA)
R1	1.00	1.00
R2	2.20	2.20
R3	3.30	3.30

 

The algebraic sum of currents at each node in the circuit was calculated and found to be zero, which verifies KCL. The Current Divider Rule was verified by comparing the calculated current through each branch to the measured current through each branch. The results are shown in Table 2 below. Table 2: Current Divider Rule calculations and measurements

Resistor	Calculated current (mA)	Measured current (mA)
R1	37.04	36.79
R2	16.89	16.67
R3	10.10	10.00

 

 

The calculated and measured values are very close to each other, which verifies the Current Divider Rule.

Conclusion: Kirchhoff's Current Law (KCL) and the Current Divider Rule were both verified through the experiment. These principles are fundamental to the analysis of electrical circuits, and their verification provides confidence in the accuracy of circuit analysis.