Lab 4: Kirchhoff’s Voltage and Current Laws

Date: 19.02.2020
PHYS 162, section 10
Group members:

Objectives
● Study and apply Kirchhoff Current Law
● Study and apply Kirchhoff Voltage Law
● Study to connect Multimeter to more advanced circuits
● Compare experimental results with the results obtained by the Kirchhoff rules

Experimental Data
Table 1.The resistances of resistors
Label Color code, Ω Measured value, Ω
R1 100±1.0 100.24±0.01

R2 560±5.6 557.32±0.01

R3 470±4.7 469.48±0.01

R4 270±2.7 268.74±0.01

R5 100±1.0 99.984±0.009

Table 2.Measurement results for voltage and current

Branch voltage / V, V I, mA R, kΩ
current

V 1,I1 0.9858±0.0007 9.7408±0.2076 0.1012±0.015

V 2,I2 3.0905±0.0012 5.5275±0.2485 0.5591±0.119

V 3,I3 1.9661±0.0009 4.2776±0.0793 0.4596±0.063

V 4 , I4 1.1248±0.0005 4.2852±0.0483 0.2625±0.028

V 5,I5 0.6606±0.0009 6.5407±0.2147 0.1009±0.019

V s , Is 5.0464±0.0003 9.7371±0.1972 0.5183±0.074

Data Analysis

Loop 1.

According to Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law [1]:

 −V s+V 1+V 2 +V 5 =0 (1)

-5.0464 + 0.9858 + 3.0905 + 0.6606 = -0.3095 V

Error:
∆ V =√ ∆ V 2S + ∆ V 21 +∆ V 22 +∆ V 25
∆ V = 0.00168 V
Loop 2.

According to Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law[1]:

−V 2 +V 3 +V 4 =0 (2)

-3.0905 + 1.9661 + 1.1248 = 0.0004 V

Error:

∆ V =√ ∆ V 22 +∆ V 23 + ∆V 24 (3)
∆ V = 0.00158 V
Node a.
According to Kirchhoff’s Current Law[1]:

−I s + I 1=0 (4)

-9.7371 + 9.7408 = 0.0037 mA

Error:

∆ I = √ ∆ I 2s +∆ I 21 (5)
∆ I = 0.2863 mA

Node b.

According to Kirchhoff’s Current Law[1]:

−I 1+ I 2 + I 3=0 (6)

-9.7408 + 5.5275 + 4.2776 = 0.0643 mA

Error:
 ∆ I = √ ∆ I 22 +∆ I 21 +∆ I 23 (7)
∆ I = 0.4658 mA
Node c.

According to Kirchhoff’s Current Law[1]:

−I 3+ I 4=0 (8)

-4.2776 + 4.2852 = 0.0076 mA

Error:

∆ I = √ ∆ I 23 +∆ I 24 (9)
∆ I = 0.0929 mA
Node d.

According to Kirchhoff’s Current Law[1]:

−I 2−I 4 + I 5=0 (10)

-5.5275 - 4.2852 + 6.5407 = -3.272 mA

Error:

∆ I = √ ∆ I 22 +∆ I 24 + ∆ I 25 (11)
∆ I = 0.3319 mA

Theoretical values of Voltage and Current.

R2 (R 3+ R 4 )
Rtotal =R 1+ R 5+ (12)
R2 + R3 + R 4

√( )( )( )( )( )
2 2 2 2 2
∂ Rtotal ∂ Rtotal ∂ Rtotal ∂ Rtotal ∂ Rtotal
∆ R total= ∆ R1 + ∆ R2 + ∆R3 + ∆R5 + ∆ R 4 (13)
∂ R1 ∂ R2 ∂ R3 ∂ R5 ∂ R4

From color code Rtotal = 518.77±2.510812 Ω

From multimeter Rtotal = 517.79±0.022746 Ω

Vs
I = R (14)
total

Table 3. Voltage and Current values calculated using resistance from color code.
Voltage, V Current, mA

1 0.9638 9.638

2 3.0723 5.486

3 1.9514 4.152

4 1.121 4.152

5 0.9638 9.638

Table 4. Voltage and Current values calculated using resistance from the multimeter.
Voltage, V Current, mA

1 0.9679 9.656

2 3.0687 5.506

3 1.9483 4.15

4 1.1152 4.15

5 0.9654 9.656

Discussion

The results of the voltage around two loops are -0.3095± 0.00168 V and 0.0004±0.00158 V.
The first one is a little different than the expected result which is zero, however, the second
one is approximately zero which confirms the Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law in the circuits. The
results of the current for different nodes are 0.0037± 0.2863 mA, 0.0643±0.4658 mA,
0.0076±0.0929 mA and -3.272±0.3319 mA. The values are close to zero and it verifies the
Kirchhoff’s Current Law. From calculated data can be observed that results for loop and
node calculated including data of I 2, V 2and I 5 , V 5differ from the expected results more than
the others. The possible sources of error are stray in-circuit resistance due to jumpers and
links, the resistance of wires, environmental factor such as change of the resistance due to
temperature, and unstable voltage, current in the circuit which can be seen from difference for
voltage in parallel connection and the difference in current in series connection (Table 2).
Comparing the theoretical and experimental results (calculated using two ways to identify
resistance values), they are almost equal to each other.

Conclusion
In conclusion, overall work was conducted successfully according to the manual. All objectives
were achieved because we studied and applied Kirchhoff’s Laws correctly. The sum of the
potential differences was approximately zero in each loop, as given in the definition of
Kirchhoff’s Voltage rule. The sum of all currents in each node was also close to zero as given by
definition of Kirchhoff’s Junction rule. Multimeter in all cases was connected successfully
because theoretical and experimental total resistances of the circuit are approximately the same,
517.79 and 518.77 respectively. The accuracy of the results can be improved by repeating the
measurements for each case multiple times.

Reference
[1] Manual of Lab 4: Kirchhoff’s Voltage and Current Laws. (n. d.). Retrieved from
Moodle:
https://moodle.nu.edu.kz/pluginfile.php/198929/mod_resource/content/2/Lab
%204%20Kirchhgoffs%20Voltage%20and%20Current%20Laws.pdf