Inductors Electromagnetism – A Quick Introduction An electromagnetic field is the combination of both an electric field and a magnetic field. Both affect each other and both always exist whenever there is a moving electrical charge. However, both can also…
Practical Capacitors There are a wide variety of capacitor types which use a number of different construction materials. Here is a broad selection of the ind of thing that is available. Capacitor Types Fixed Values Ceramic Disc Made by coating…
Series & Parallel Capacitors Series Capacitors First of all consider what is happening. So we can say that: and from Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law we can also say that: and substituting for we get Then by dividing both sides by QTotal…
Capacitance What is Capacitance? Before I answer that question, let me start by clearing up something which has the potential to be very confusing… Capacitance has been given the designation C, which, as you will remember from the article on…
Nodal Analysis The motivation for Nodal Analysis (a.k.a.the Branch Current Method) is that sometimes you have a circuit which is too complicated to solve using a simplification method, such as superposition. Nodal analysis on the other hand will work for any…
Mesh Current Analysis (a.k.a. Loop Analysis) The motivation for Mesh Analysis is that sometimes you have a circuit which is too complicated to solve using a simplification method, such as superposition. Mesh analysis on the other hand will work for…
Superposition Theorem The Superposition theorem is a basic circuit analysis technique that is only useful where there are more than one voltage or current sources in the same circuit. It states that: The current in any element is equal to…
Millman’s Theorem Millman’s theorem says that: when a circuit contains a parallel connected network of practical voltage sources (they MUST have a series internal resistance), they can be replaced by a single equivalent voltage source with a series resistance. This…
Norton’s Theorem We have already looked at what a current source is in a previous article on Voltage and Current Sources. Norton’s theorem builds on that knowledge stating that: Any linear electrical network containing only voltage sources, current sources and resistances can be replaced at terminals A–B by an equivalent combination…
Thevenin’s Theorem We have already looked at what a voltage source is in a previous article on Voltage and Current Sources. Thevenin’s theorem builds on that knowledge stating that: Any linear electrical network containing only voltage sources, current sources and resistances can be replaced at terminals A–B by an equivalent…