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Q.State two Kirchhoff's rules. Apply them to find the condition of balance of a Wheatstone's bridge. (1/2+1/2+4)

Odisha ChseOdisha CHSE +2 Science Board Exam 2026Subjective· 5mImportance★★★★★
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Kirchhoff's junction rule (charge conservation) and loop rule (energy conservation), applied to a balanced Wheatstone bridge, give the condition P/Q=R/SP/Q = R/S.

Kirchhoff's two rules:

  1. Junction rule (Kirchhoff's current law): At any junction in a circuit, the algebraic sum of currents is zero — i.e. the sum of currents entering a junction equals the sum of currents leaving it. This follows from conservation of electric charge (charge cannot accumulate at a junction in steady state).

  2. Loop rule (Kirchhoff's voltage law): The algebraic sum of the potential differences (changes in potential, including emf's and IR drops) around any closed loop in a circuit is zero. This follows from conservation of energy (a charge returning to its starting point after going around a loop has the same potential energy it started with).

Application to the Wheatstone bridge: A Wheatstone bridge has four resistances P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S arranged in a diamond/rhombus, with a battery connected across one diagonal and a galvanometer across the other. Let the bridge be balanced, meaning no current flows through the galvanometer (Ig=0I_g = 0).

Label the junctions and let currents I1I_1 (through PP and RR) and I2I_2 (through QQ and SS) flow, since Ig=0I_g=0 means the same current continues straight through P→RP\to R and Q→SQ\to S (junction rule at the galvanometer's two ends).

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