Anindya Widyadhari
2006488884
Class Assignment 7 December 2022
1. What is the significance of bridge circuit measurements over direct meter measurements?
Bridge measuring circuits’ errors that occur in the measurement, errors due to improper
grounding or shielding, and the effect of temperature could be eliminated. The range of the
measurement parameters is large and could also be measured by using AC bridges in addition
to frequency.
2. Draw the circuit for a Wheatstone bridge and derive the expression for current through
the galvanometer due to imbalance in the bridge circuit.
I 1 R 1=I 2 R 2
E
I 1=I 3=
R 1+ R 3
E
I 2=I 4=
R 2+ R 4
Eth
Ig=
Rth + Rg
3. What are the limitations of a Wheatstone bridge? Mention its applications.
At low resistance measurement, the resistance of the leads and contacts becomes significant,
making an error occurred in the wheatstone bridge. And at high resistance measurement, the
measurement is so large that the galvanometer is imbalance due to its insensitivity. And also, the
resistance changes due to the current’s heating effect through the resistance, an excessive current
may even cause permanent changes in the resistance value. The changes in the resistance in the
arms of the bridge causing a rise in temperature effects the measurement. If the imbalance
current is only just a few mA and the meter isn’t able to measure the same, it will indicate a null
balance, resulting in errors in determining the value of the unknown resistance R.
For the Wheatstone bridge application, it could be used for any precise measurement of low
resistance. It could also used to measure physical parameters like temperature, light or strains.
And it could measure impedance, inductance, capacitance using variations on the bridge.
4. Explain how the Kelvin bridge overcomes the limitations of the Wheatstone bridge. Why
do you call it a double bridge?
The kelvin bridge is used to measure a very low values of resistance. It overcomes the limitations
of Wheatstone bridge in determining very low values of resistances since the effect or load
resistances, contact resistances, and the resistances of the wires are also taken into account in the
analysis of the bridge circuit. There is no effect of load and contact resistance in the Kelvin
bridge since the bridge is independent of load and contact resistance. The kelvin double bridge is
called a double bridge because it has 2 additional arms. Those arms connect the galvanometer
points and eliminates effect of the yoke resistance. The working of the kelvin bridge indicates
the resistance of connecting lead that has no effect on the measurement provided by the 2 sets of
ratio arms have equal ratios.
5. Derive the expression for the unknown resistance RX in the case of a Kelvin double
bridge. Mention the applications of a Kelvin bridge.
R 3+ Rx+
( ra+rb ) Ry R 1+ R 2
ra+ rb+ Ry
=
R2 [R 3+
ra
+ (
( ra+rb ) Ry
ra+rb ra+rb + Ry )]
Rx=
R 1+ R 3
R3 [R3−R 3−
ra Ry
−
rbRy
+
rbRy
ra+ rb+ Ry ra+ rb+ Ry ra+rb + Ry ]
Rx=
R1 R3
R2
+
rbRy
[
R 1 ra
−
ra+ rb+ Ry R 2 rb ]
R1 R3
R x=
R2
The kelvin bridge is used to measure resistances of a very low values, in the range of 1 Ohm to
0,00001 Ohm, like the resistance of the contacts, leads, and connecting wires. It could also used
to measure an unknown resistance of a wire.
