OHM'S LAW

What is Ohm's Law? Ohm's Law is made from 3 mathematical equations that shows the
relationship between electric voltage, current and resistance.
What is voltage? An analogy would be a huge water tank illed with thousands of gallons of water
high on a hill. The difference between the pressure of water in the tank and the water that comes
out of a pipe connected at the bottom leading to a faucet is determined by the size of the pipe and
the size of the outlet of the faucet. This difference of pressure between the two can be thought of
as potential Voltage.
What is current? An analogy would be the amount of low determined by the pressure (voltage)
of the water thru the pipes leading to a faucet. The term current refers to the quantity, volume or
intensity of electrical low, as opposed to voltage, which refers to the force or "pressure" causing
the current low.
What is resistance? An analogy would be the size of the water pipes and the size of the faucet.
The larger the pipe and the faucet (less resistance), the more water that comes out! The smaller
the pipe and faucet, (more resistance), the less water that comes out! This can be thought of as
resistance to the low of the water current. All three of these: voltage, current and resistance
directly interact in Ohm's law. Change any two of them and you effect the third.
Ohm's Law can be stated as mathematical equations, all derived from the same principle. In the
following equations,
V is voltage measured in volts (the size of the water tank),
I is current measured in amperes (related to the pressure (Voltage) of water thru the pipes and
faucet) and R is resistance measured in ohms as related to the size of the pipes and faucet:
V = I x R (Voltage = Current multiplied by Resistance)
R = V / I (Resistance = Voltage divided by Current)
V / R (Current = Voltage Divided by Resistance)
For example, to ind the Voltage in a circuit:
If the circuit has a current of 2 amperes, and a resistance of 1 ohm, ( these are the two "known"),
then according to Ohms Law and the formulas above, voltage = current multiplied by resistance:
(V = 2 amperes x 1 ohm = 2 volts).
To ind the current in the same circuit above assuming we did not know it but we know the voltage
and resistance:
I = 2 volts divided by the resistance 1 ohm = 2 amperes.
In this third example we know the current (2 amperes) and the voltage (2 volts)....what is the
resistance? Substituting the formula:
R = Volts divided by the current (2 volts divided by 2 amperes = 1 ohm. Sometimes it's very helpful
to associate these formulas Visually. The Ohms Law "wheels" and graphics below can be a very
useful tool to jog your memory and help you to understand their relationship.
Series Circuit
A circuit composed solely of components connected in series is known as a series circuit A Simple Series
Circuit Let's start with a series circuit consisting of three resistors and a single battery:

The first principle to understand about series circuits is that the amount of current is the same through any
component in the circuit. This is because there is only one path for electrons to flow in a series circuit, and
because free electrons flow through conductors like marbles in a tube, the rate of flow (marble speed) at any
point in the circuit (tube) at any specific point in time must be equal. From the way that the 9 volt battery is
arranged, we can tell that the electrons in this circuit will flow in a counter-clockwise direction, from point
4 to 3 to 2 to 1 and back to 4. However, we have one source of voltage and three resistances. How do we use
Ohm's Law here? An important caveat to Ohm's Law is that all quantities (voltage, current, resistance, and
power) must relate to each other in terms of the same two points in a circuit. For instance, with a single-
ba ery, single-resistor circuit, we could easily calculate any quan ty because they all applied to the same
two points in the circuit:

Since points 1 and 2 are connected together with wire of negligible resistance, as are points 3 and 4, we can
say that point 1 is electrically common to point 2, and that point 3 is electrically common to point 4. Since
we know we have 9 volts of electromo ve force between points 1 and 4 (directly across the ba ery), and
since point 2 is common to point 1 and point 3 common to point 4, we must also have 9 volts between
points 2 and 3 (directly across the resistor). Therefore, we can apply Ohm's Law (I = E/R) to the current
through the resistor, because we know the voltage (E) across the resistor and the resistance (R) of that
resistor. All terms (E, I, R) apply to the same two points in the circuit, to that same resistor, so we can use
the Ohm's Law formula with no reserva on. However, in circuits containing more than one resistor, we must
be careful in how we apply Ohm's Law. In the three-resistor example circuit below, we know that we have
9 volts between points 1 and 4, which is the amount of electromo ve force trying to push electrons through
the series combina on of R1, R2, and R3. However, we cannot take the value of 9 volts and divide it by 3k,
10k or 5k Ω to try to find a current value, because we don't know how much voltage is across any one of
those resistors, individually.
The figure of 9 volts is a total quantity for the whole circuit, whereas the figures of 3k, 10k, and 5k Ω are
individual quantities for individual resistors. If we were to plug a figure for total voltage into an Ohm's Law
equation with a figure for individual resistance, the result would not relate accurately to any quantity in the
real circuit.

In essence, we've calculated the equivalent resistance of R1, R2, and R3 combined. Knowing this, we could
re-draw the circuit with a single equivalent resistor represen ng the series combina on of R1, R2, and R3:
Now we have all the necessary informa on to calculate circuit current, because we have the voltage
between points 1 and 4 (9 volts) and the resistance between points 1 and 4 (18 kΩ):

Now we have all the necessary informa on to calculate circuit current, because we have the voltage
between points 1 and 4 (9 volts) and the resistance between points 1 and 4 (18 kΩ):

Knowing that current is equal through all components of a series circuit (and we just determined
the current through the ba ery), we can go back to our original circuit schema c and note the current
through each component:

Now that we know the amount of current through each resistor, we can use Ohm's Law to determine the
voltage drop across each one (applying Ohm's Law in its proper context):
Parallel Circuit
One connected completely in parallel is known as a parallel circuit. Simple Parallel Circuit Let's start with
a parallel circuit consisting of three resistors and a single battery:

The first principle to understand about parallel circuits is that the voltage is equal across all components in
the circuit. This is because there are only two sets of electrically common points in a parallel circuit, and
voltage measured between sets of common points must always be the same at any given me. Therefore,
in the above circuit, the voltage across R1 is equal to the voltage across R2 which is equal to the voltage
across R3 which is equal to the voltage across the ba ery. This equality of voltages can be represented in
another table for our star ng values:

Just as in the case of series circuits, the same caveat for Ohm's Law applies: values for voltage, current, and
resistance must be in the same context in order for the calcula ons to work correctly. However, in the above
example circuit, we can immediately apply Ohm's Law to each resistor to find its current because we know
the voltage across each resistor (9 volts) and the resistance of each resistor:

At this point we s ll don't know what the total current or total resistance for this parallel circuit is, so we
can't apply Ohm's Law to the rightmost ("Total") column. However, if we think carefully about what is
happening it should become apparent that the total current must equal the sum of all individual resistor
("branch") currents:

As the total current exits the nega ve (-) ba ery terminal at point 8 and travels through the circuit, some of
the flow splits off at point 7 to go up through R1, some more splits off at point 6 to go up through R2, and
the remainder goes up through R3. Like a river branching into several smaller streams, the combined flow
rates of all streams must equal the flow rate of the whole river. The same thing is encountered where the
currents through R1, R2, and R3 join to flow back to the posi ve terminal of the ba ery (+) toward point 1:
the flow of electrons from point 2 to point 1 must equal the sum of the (branch) currents through R1, R2,
and R3. This is the second principle of parallel circuits: the total circuit current is equal to the sum of the
individual branch currents. Using this principle, we can fill in the IT spot on our table with the sum of IR1, IR2,
and IR3:

Finally, applying Ohm's Law to the rightmost ("Total") column, we can calculate the total circuit resistance:

Please note something very important here. The total circuit resistance is only 625 Ω: less than any one of
the individual resistors. In the series circuit, where the total resistance was the sum of the individual
resistances, the total was bound to be greater than any one of the resistors individually. Here in the parallel
circuit, however, the opposite is true: we say that the individual resistances diminish rather than add to
make the total. This principle completes our triad of "rules" for parallel circuits, just as series circuits were
found to have three rules for voltage, current, and resistance. Mathema cally, the rela onship between
total resistance and individual resistances in a parallel circuit looks like this:

The same basic form of equa on works for any number of resistors connected together in parallel, just add
as many 1/R terms on the denominator of the frac on as needed to accommodate all parallel resistors in
the circuit. Just as with the series circuit, we can use computer analysis to double-check our calcula ons.

First, of course, we have to describe our example circuit to the computer in terms it can understand. I'll start
by re-drawing the circuit:

Once again we find that the original numbering scheme used to iden fy points in the circuit will have to be
altered for the benefit of SPICE. In SPICE, all electrically common points must share iden cal node numbers.
This is how SPICE knows what's connected to what, and how. In a simple parallel circuit, all points are
electrically common in one of two sets of points. For our example circuit, the wire connec ng the tops of
all the components will have one node number and the wire connec ng the bo oms of the components
will have the other. Staying true to the conven on of including zero as a node number, I choose the numbers
0 and 1: