Kirchhoff's Laws
Kirchhoff's laws deal withconservationenergyconservationcharge when appliedelectrical circuits. Although named after Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, theyoften also wrongly called Kirchoff's laws. Kirchhoff stated another setlaws, also known as Kirchhoff's laws, relatingradiation from incandescent objects, soavoid ambiguityelectrical laws describedthis articlesometimes known as Kirchhoff's rules. The two rules were first described1845. Both rules can be directly derivated fromMaxwell's equations.
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Kirchhoff's first law
This lawalso called Kirchhoff's current law, Kirchhoff's point ruleKirchhoff's first rule.
The principleconservationelectric charge implies that:
- At any pointan electrical circuit,sumcurrentss flowing towards that pointequal tosumcurrents flowing away from that point.
Kirchhoff's second law
This lawalso called Kirchhoff's voltage law, Kirchhoff's loop ruleKirchhoff's second rule.
The principleconservationenergy implies that:
- The directed sum ofelectrical potential differences aroundcircuit must sumzero. Otherwise,would be possiblebuildperpetual motion machine that passedcurrent incircle aroundcircuit.
