1. AIM: To verify Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL) and study its limitations.

2. APPARATUS REQUIRED:

Table.1: Apparatus required for Kirchhoff’s Current Law

3. THEORY:

Kirchhoff’s laws are used to determine the current and voltage in different branches of an
electric circuit which may not be easily solved by Ohm’s law. These laws are applicable to
both AC and DC circuits.

Statement of Kirchhoff’s First Law or Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL) or Point Law:

It states that the algebraic sum of all the currents meeting at a junction or a node in any
electric circuit at any instant is zero.

Explanation:

Consider that few conductors are meeting at point M as in Fig. 1A.1. The arrows indicate the
direction of current flow. The currents I2 and I4 are coming towards the junction M and
currents I1 and I3 are going away from the junction. Assume positive sign for incoming
currents and negative sign for outgoing currents.
 Fig.1 KCL Diagram

According to KCL,

i.e., I 2 +I 4 = I1 + I3

i.e., Incoming currents = Outgoing currents I1= I2+ I4 I2= I5+ I6 I3= I6

4. Limitations:

1.     Not applicable in stray currents environment and in high frequency applications (even
KCL is violated at 60 Hz frequency).

2.     Not applicable to circuit having distributed elements.

5. PRECAUTIONS:

1.     Switch off the supply first and then start making connections.
2.     Meters of suitable range should be used as shown.

6.CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:

Fig.2 KCL Circuit

7. PROCEDURE:

1.     The circuit is connected as shown in Fig. 2.

2.     The voltage of DC supply was set at 12 V.

3.     Different values of R1 to R6 were taken and readings of A1 to A6 were noted down. 

4.     Accordingly, only one set of reading was taken at 12 V DC supply.

5.     The observations were recorded in Table 1

8. OBSERVATION TABLE:

Table 2: Observation Table for Kirchhoff’s Current Law

Applying KCL at junction B, I1 =I 2 + I4 (2)

Applying KCL at junction C, I 2 = I 36 + I5 (3)

Calculations are done for all the readings being taken using Eq. (2) and (3) to be applied at
respective junctions.

10. SOURCES OF ERROR:

1.     Internal resistance of DC battery.

2.     Internal resistance of multimeter viz. voltmeter and ammeter.

3.     Internal resistance of connecting wires.

4.     Heating effect of rheostat coil (Joule’s law of electric heating)

5.     All the sources of error related to multimeter.

11. RESULT:

As per Kirchhoff’s Current Law, the theoretical and calculated values of algebraic sum of
currents are compared as shown in Table2.

Table.3: Result Table for Kirchhoff’s Current Law

The difference in comparison of theoretical and calculated values should be analyzed and
resulting difference if any, in both sets of readings is likely due to various sources of error
mentioned in Section1. From Table 3, it is seen that error involved is very small and thus,
KCL is verified.

VIVA VOCE:

1.     Give reasons why ammeter is always connected in series with the supply. 

2.     In what cases, Kirchhoff’s laws are not applicable to DC circuits.

3.     Can Kirchhoff’s laws be applicable to AC circuits?

4.     Can we apply Kirchhoff’s laws in non-linear circuits?

5.     A lamp rated 100 V, 75 W is to be connected across 230 V supply. Find the value of
resistance to be

connected in series with the lamp and power loss occurred in that resistance. [173.3 Ω,
97.48 W]