Q.(a) State Kirchhoff's law for an electrical network. Using these laws deduce the condition for balance in a Wheatstone bridge.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Kirchhoff's junction rule (charge conservation) and loop rule (energy conservation) together give the Wheatstone bridge null (balance) condition P/Q = R/S. A wire of total resistance 4R bent into a ring has resistance R between diametrically opposite points.
(a) Kirchhoff's laws and the Wheatstone bridge
Junction (current) rule: at any junction in an electrical network, the algebraic sum of currents meeting at that junction is zero () — i.e. current entering a junction equals current leaving it. This follows from conservation of charge (charge cannot accumulate at a junction in steady state).
Loop (voltage) rule: around any closed loop in a network, the algebraic sum of the potential differences (IR products) and EMFs is zero (). This follows from conservation of energy (the electric field is conservative).
Wheatstone bridge: four resistances are arranged in a diamond/rhombus, with a galvanometer connected across one diagonal (between the P-Q junction and the R-S junction) and a battery across the other diagonal. At balance, no current flows through the galvanometer (). Applying the junction rule at the two mid-junctions, the same current flows through both and , and the same current flows through both and . Applying the loop rule to the loop containing , (=0), : with there is no potential drop across , so the potential at the two galvanometer terminals is equal, which gives and . Dividing:
This is the balance condition of the Wheatstone bridge, used to find an unknown resistance in terms of three known ones.
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