“What the mind can conceive and

believe, it can achieve."

… Napoleon Hill

4
CHAPTER

Bridges

Level-1 Select the correct answer using the codes

given below
1. Maxwell’s inductance-capacitance bridge is (A) 1 and 2 (B) 2 and 3
used for measurement of inductance of (C) 3 and 4 (D) 1 and 3
[ESE: 2006]
(A) low Q coils only 5. Hay’s bridge is suitable for the measurement
(B) medium Q coils only of which one of the following? [ESE: 2007]
(C) high Q coils only (A)
(D) low and medium Q coils (B)
(C) Capacitance with high dissipating factor
2. Which of the following bridges can be used for (D) Capacitance with low dissipating factor
inductance measurement?
1. Maxwell’s bridge 6. A Wheatstone Bridge requires a change of
2. Schering bridge in the unknown arm of a bridge to produce a
3. Wein bridge change in deflection of of the
4. Hay’s bridge galvanometer. Then the sensitivity of the
5. Wheatstone bridge bridge is __________ (Rounded off to two
Select the correct answer using the codes decimal places)
given below
(A) 1 and 2 (B) 2 and 3 7. Schering bridge can be used to measure which
(C) 3,4 and 5 (D) 1 and 4 one of the following? [ESE: 2008]
(A) Q of a coil
3. What should be that main characteristic(s) of (B) Inductance and its Q-value
the null detector in a bridge measurement? (C) Very small resistance
1. Accuracy (D) Capacitance and its power factor
2. Precision
3. Sensitivity 8. A bridge circuit works at a frequency of 2 kHz.
4. Resolution The following can be used as detectors for
Select the correct answer using the code given detection of null conditions in the bridge
below [ESE: 2013]
(A) Only 1 and 2 (B) Only 2 and 3 (A) vibration galvanometers and head-
(C) Only 3 and 4 (D) Only 3 phones
(B) headphones and tunable amplifiers
4. Which of the following factors decide the (C) vibration galvanometers and tunable
accuracy in a bridge measurement? amplifiers
[ESE: 2005] (D) vibration galvanometers, head-phones
1. Accuracy of the null indicator and tunable amplifiers
2. Accuracy of the bridge components
3. Sensitivity of the null indicator 9. In a Wheatstone Bridge as shown in figure, if
4. Applied voltage to the bridge system is increased from then the
current will be

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 Bridges
13. In the circuit shown, when the current
through the branch AD is zero, then the
current [ESE-2012]

(A) increased
(B) decreased
(C) unchanged
(D) depends upon polarity of battery
(A) 1 mA (B) 2 mA
10. Assertion (A): A four-arm ‘Wien’ bridge (C) 12.5 mA (D) 6.25 mA
network is sometimes used in feedback circuit
of tuned amplifier. 14. For obtaining the balancing condition in ac
Reason (R): The balance equation of such a bridge which of the following conditions are
Wein bridge contains ‘frequency’ term along needed to be satisfied?
with arm parameters. [ESE: 2002] (I) Angle condition
(A) both A and R are true and R is the correct (II) Magnitude condition
explanation of A (A) (I) (B) (II)
(B) both A and R are true but R is NOT the (C) (I) and (II) (D) None
correct explanation of A
(C) A is true but R is false 15. The Wheatstone bridge method of resistance
(D) A is false but R is true measurement is ideally suitable for the
measurement of resistance values in the range
11. If the resistance of each arm is increased by of
0.05% then the output voltage will be (A) (B)
(C) (D)

16. An unknown capacitance is measured by using

Schering’s bridge. The variable resistance and
capacitance at balance condition are obtained
as respectively. If the supply
frequency is 50Hz, then the dissipation factor
of unknown capacitance is ___________.
(A) 50 mV (B) 5 mV (Rounded off to nearest integer)
(C) 0.1 V (D) Zero V
17. Match List-I (Bridge) with List-II (Parameter
12. For the Wheatstone bridge shown in the to be measured) and select the correct answer
figure, the battery current is ___________ mA. List-I List-II
(Rounded off to two decimal places) a. Maxwell’s 1. Frequency
bridge
b. Hay’s bridge 2. Inductance of
medium Q-coils

c. Schering 3. Inductance of high

bridge Q-coils
d. Wien bridge 4. Capacitance
[ESE: 2001]

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 Bridges
Codes:
a b c d
(A) 4 3 2 1
(B) 4 1 2 3
(C) 2 1 4 3
(D) 2 3 4 1

18. The reading of the high input impedance

voltmeter connected in a wheat stone bridge
as shown in figure is __________V. (Rounded off
to two decimal places)
2. Given
the value of √ for the bridge
shown in the figure to be balanced is

~
19. The capacitance and loss angle of a given
capacitor specimen are best measured by
(A) (B)
[ESE: 2003]
(C) (D)
(A) Wheatstone bridge
(B) Maxwell bridge
3. The bridge circuit shown is under balanced
(C) Anderson bridge
condition; then the magnitude of I is _________
(D) Schering bridge
mA. (Rounded off to two decimal places)
20. In the bridge circuit shown, the percentage
error in the if bridge is under balance

(A) (B) 4. A high resistance is being measured by loss of

(C) (D) charge method. In this method a capacitor of
is charged upto 500V and then
discharged through the high resistance.
Level-2
If electrostatic voltmeter connected across
high resistance reads 300V in 60 seconds,
1. A Wheatstone bridge as shown in figure is at
then the value of measured resistance is
balance. Suppose the resistors P and S are
__________ (Rounded off to two decimal
increased by 1% and R and Q are decreased by
places)
1% then the reading of high input impedance
voltmeter is __________mV. (Rounded off to two
decimal places)

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 Bridges
5. Each of the ratio arms of a laboratory type 9. The arms of an ac bridge shown in figure
Wheatstone bridge has a guaranteed accuracy below are arranged, for balance as follows:
of while the standard arm has a
guaranteed accuracy of The ratio The supply
arms are both set at and the bridge is frequency is Determine the loss angle
balanced with standard arm adjusted to of condenser?
Then the percentage limiting error of
the unknown arm resistance is
(A) (B)
(C) (D)

6. The equivalent resistance across the terminal

1 and 2 in the given figure is

~
~
1 2
~
(A) (B)
(C) (D)

(A) (B) 10. In a measurement of resistance by

(C) (D) substitution method a standard
resistor is used. The galvanometer has a
7. The Wheatstone bridge shown below is of resistance of and gives deflections as
galvanometer follows:
resistance If Thevenin voltage (I) With standard resistor, 41 divisions.
across cd is 50 mV and galvanometer current (II) With unknown resistance, 51 divisions.
then the value of Q is __________ . The unknown resistance is __________ (in
(Rounded off to two decimal places) (Rounded off to two decimal places)

11. In the circuit shown below, the bridge is

balanced, if , then the value of
x is __________. (Rounded off to two decimal
places)

8. A highly sensitive galvanometer can detect a

current as low as 0.1 nA. This galvanometer is
~
used in a Wheatstone bridge as a detector.
The resistance of galvanometer is negligible.
Each arm of the bridge has a resistance of
The input voltage applied to the bridge
is 20 V. The smallest change in resistance
which can be detected when the resistance of 12. If the below bridge is balanced for oscillator
the galvanometer can be neglected as frequency then the impedance Z
compared with the internal resistance of will be
bridge is __________ (Rounded off to two
decimal places)

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 Bridges
The value of unknown resistance is _______
(Rounded off to two decimal places)

~ 16. A 4 terminal resistor of approximately

resistance was measured by means of a Kelvin
bridge having the following component
resistances:

(A) (B)
(C) (D)
resistance of link connecting the standard and
13. A kelvin double bridge is balanced with the unknown resistance
The unknown resistance (in is __________.
What is the value of unknown (Rounded off to nearest integer)
resistance _________ . (Rounded off to two
decimal places) 17. For the bridge shown in the figure, at balance
the values of will be

14. In the bridge shown in the figure

( ) ( )

( ) ( )
The value of unknown impedance at
balance is
( ) ( )

18. A shunt type ohmmeter is shown in the figure.

With disconnected, the meter reads full
~ D scale. With connected, the meter reads the
fraction ‘S’ of full scale current such that
~
(A) (B)
(C) (D)

15. In a measurement of resistance by

substitution method a standard resistor of
is used. The galvanometer has a
resistance of gives deflection as follows.
(i) With standard resistor, 51 divisions
(ii) With unknown resistance, 70 divisions

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 Bridges
19. A Wheatstone bridge is used for measuring
the value of change of resistance of a strain
gauge which forms one of the arms of the
bridge. All the arms of the bridge including
the strain gauge have a resistance of
each. The maximum allowable power
dissipation from the strain gauge is 250 mW.
The value of maximum permissible current
through the strain gauge and maximum
allowable value of bridge supply voltage are
(A) 50 mA, 10 V (B) 10 mA, 50 V
~
(C) 5 mA, 50 V (D) 10 mA, 5 V
(A)
20. For the ac bridge as shown in figure balance is (B)
obtained at then (C)
the quality factor of unknown coil is __________. (D)
(Rounded off to two decimal places)
Note: Consider supply frequency as 50 Hz. 3. In a test on a Bakelite sample at 20 kV, 50 Hz
by Schering Bridge, having a standard
capacitor of 106 pF, balance was obtained
with a capacitance of in parallel with a
non-inductive resistance of 318 ohms, the
non-inductive resistance in the remaining arm
of the bridge is 130 ohms. The power factor of
unknown branch is
(A) 0.045 (B) 0.015
~ (C) 0.025 (D) 0.035

(A) 0.157 (B) 15.7

4. Which of following conditions are to be
(C) 0.314 (D) 3.14
satisfied so that common variable shaft of
resistance can be adjusted in
Level-3 frequency to measure the frequency of E
under balanced condition?
1. An ac bridge consists the following constants:
Arm ab: a resistance of parallel with a
capacitor of
Arm bc: an unknown resistance
Arm cd: a known resistance of
~
Arm da: a resistance of in series with a
capacitance.
The unknown resistance required to give
balance for a frequency of 1000Hz is __________ 1.
(in (Rounded off to two decimal places) 2.
3.
2. An ac bridge circuit working at 1000 Hz is 4.
shown. Arm ab is a 0.2 pure capacitance; (A) 1 and 4 (B) 1 and 2
arm bc is a pure resistance; arm cd (C) 2 and 4 (D) 1, 2 and 3
contains an unknown impedance and arm da
has a resistance in parallel with a 5. A sheet of bakelite 4.5 mm thick is tested at
capacitor. The R and C or L constants of arm 50 Hz between electrodes 0.12 m in diameter.
cd considering it as a series circuit are The schering bridge employs a standard air
capacitor capacitance, a non-

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 Bridges
reactance resistance in parallel a standard capacitor C, arm cd is a non-
with a variable capacitor and a reactive resistor in parallel with a standard
non –reactance variable resistance Balance capacitor arm da is a standard air
is obtained with capacitor of capacitance Without the
The relative permittivity of a sheet is specimen between the electrodes, balance is
obtained with the following values;
(A) 3.84 (B) 6.84
(C) 5.84 (D) 4.84 With the specimen
inserted these values become
6. A balanced bridge has the following arm and In each
parameters: test The relative permittivity
Arm of the specimen is_________. (Rounded off to
two decimal places)

9. A capacitor bushing forms the arm AB of a

high voltage schering bridge, a standard
capacitor of and negligible loss forms
An ac voltage of frequency 1kHz is applied the arms AD. Arm BC consists of a non-
across the junction Find the parameters of inductive resistance of The bridge is
arm CD. balanced with the arm CD having a resistance
(A) of and capacitance of in
(B) parallel. supply is connected between A
(C) and C. Calculate the capacitance and
(D) dielectric loss angle ( of bushing.
(A) (B)
7. The ac bridge shown in the figure is used to (C) (D)
measure an unknown inductance connected in
CD arm. The bridge can be balanced by 10. A Wheatstone bridge has ratio arms of

~
and is being used to
measure an unknown resistance of
Two galvanometers are available.
Galvanometer ‘A’ has a resistance of and
a sensitivity of 200 A and galvanometer
‘B’ has values of
Which of the two galvanometers is more
sensitive to a small disturbance on the above
bridge, and what is the ratio of sensitivities?
(A) A is more sensitive, 1.75
(A) placing a resistor of in parallel (B) B is more sensitive, 1.75
with capacitor (C) A is less sensitive, 1.75
(B) placing a capacitor of reactance in (D) A is more sensitive, 0.57
series with resistor
(C) placing a resistor of in parallel 11. A modified form of Wheatstone bridge is
with capacitor shown in figure.
(D) If

8. In a low-voltage schering bridge designed for The value of under balanced condition is
the measurement of permittivity, the branch __________ (Rounded off to 2 decimal places)
ab consists of two electrodes between which
the specimen under test may be inserted; arm
bc is a non-reactive resistor in parallel with

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 Bridges
14. The resistance values of the bridge circuit
shown in figure are
The bridge is balanced by
introducing a small voltage V. The value of

12. In the Wheatstone bridge, the values of

resistances of various arms are

The battery has an emf of 5 V and

negligible internal resistance. The
galvanometer has a current sensitivity of
and an internal resistance of
The sensitivity of the bridge in terms 15. An inductance of 0.22 H and resistance is
of deflection per unit change in resistance is measured by comparison with a fixed
__________ . (Rounded off to two decimal standard inductance of and
places) resistance. They are connected as shown in
figure. The unknown inductance is in arm ab
and the standard inductance is in arm bc. A
resistance of is connected in arm cd
and a resistance whose value is not-known is
in arm da. The resistance to be inserted in
arm ab to achieve both resistive and inductive
balance is __________ . (Rounded off to two
decimal places)

13. A parallel resistance capacitance bridge as

shown in figure has a standard capacitance
value of . Balance
is achieved at a supply frequency of 100 Hz
when
Its dissipation factor is

~
~

(A) (B)
(C) (D)

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 Bridges

Answer keys and Solutions

Level-1

1. [Ans. B]

2. [Ans. D]

3. [Ans. D]
In the null detector, the measured quantity is
balanced out. This means the detector has to
cover a small range around the balance (null)
point and therefore can be highly sensitive.

4. [Ans. B]

5. [Ans. B]
For high value of Q.

6. [Ans. *]Range: 0.5 to 0.5 13. [Ans. C]

7. [Ans. D]

8. [Ans. B]

9. [Ans. C]
Bridge is balanced hence remains unchanged.

10. [Ans. A] 14. [Ans. C]

Wien Bridge is a frequency determining For obtaining the balancing condition both
network. angle and magnitude conditions have to be
satisfied.
11. [Ans. D]
As bridge is balanced, so through AD, 15. [Ans. C]
hence .
16. [Ans. B]
12. [Ans. *]Range: 10 to 10 Given
As bridge is balanced, no current is flowing
through galvanometer.

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 Bridges
17. [Ans. D] Level-2
The Wien’s bridge is primarily known as a
frequency determining bridge. It may be 1. [Ans. *]
employed in a harmonic distortion analyzer,
where it is used as notch filter. Discriminating
against one specific frequency. The Wien’s
bridge also finds applications in audio and HF
oscillators as the frequency determining
device.
The Hay’s bridge is suited for the
measurement of high Q inductors, especially
those inductors having a Q greater than 10.
For inductors having Q values smaller than 10,
the term in the expression for

Becomes rather important and thus cannot be

The reading of high input impedance
neglected. Hence this bridge is not suited for
voltmeter
measurement of coils having Q less than 10
and for these applications a Maxwell’s bridge [ ]
is more suited.

18. [Ans. *]Range:

2. [Ans. D]
The bridge is at unbalance
The given bridge is balanced, so at balanced
condition;

[ ]
√ √
[ ]

[ ( )]
19. [Ans. D]

3. [Ans. *]Range: 3 to 3
20. [Ans. B]
Since the given bridge is under balanced
As bridge is balanced:
condition

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 Bridges
7. [Ans. *]Range: 1.05 to 1.15
The Thevenin’s equivalent circuit as seen from
cd is shown below.

4. [Ans. *]Range: 46.95 to 47

Capacitor discharging equation

Where initial voltage across capacitor

Final voltage across capacitor

Time taken in discharging

Simplifying above equation, we get

( )

( )
8. [Ans. *]Range: 20 to 20
5. [Ans. D]
Value of unknown resistance It is a bridge with equal arms.
( )

( )

6. [Ans. D]

1 2 The smallest change in resistance which can

be detected

As the source is current, so it will get open. 9. [Ans. C]

From the modified De-Sauty bridge

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 Bridges

To balance the bridge

13. [Ans. *] Range: 1.64 to 1.69

10. [Ans. *]Range: 0.4 to 0.4

The deflection of the galvanometer is directly ( )
proportional to the current passing through
the circuit and hence is inversely proportional 14. [Ans. A]
to the total resistance of the circuit. Let S, R We have
and G be respectively the resistances of
standard resistor, unknown resistor and the
galvanometer. Also let be the deflection
with standard resistor in circuit and with
unknown resistor in circuit.

Hence, unknown resistance

( )

15. [Ans. *]Range: 0.5 to 0.6

11. [Ans. *]Range: 0.2 to 0.2 Let,
As bridge is balanced, the current through
detector is zero.
At balance condition;

In substitution method, current is inversely

( ) ( ) proportional to resistance and hence the
deflection is also inversely proportional to
( ) ( ) resistance.

( )

( )

12. [Ans. A]
Impedance of different branches is given as 16. [Ans. *]Range: 50 to 50
The unknown resistance
[ ]

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 Bridges
19. [Ans. A]
The resistance of strain gauge
suppose I is the current through each arms
[ ]
under balanced condition.

(Rounded to nearest integer)

Hence, maximum permissible current
17. [Ans. B]
At balance √ √

The maximum allowable voltage which can be

applied to the bridge
( ) ( ) ( )

20. [Ans. A]
At balance condition unknown resistance of
( ) ( ) the coil is

-
( ) ( )

( )

18. [Ans. D]
Let the total current flowing through battery E
is
Case I: Disconnect 1 and 2
Level-3

1. [Ans. *]Range: 380 to 381

From the given data, the bridge is Wien’s
Case II: Connect 1 and 2
bridge

At balance

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 Bridges

( )

2. [Ans. D]
Impedance of arm ab:
Power factor of capacitance:

since it is a pure
capacitance. √ ( )
Impedance of arm bc:
since it is a pure resistance. Arm
( )
da contains a resistance in parallel with
a

4. [Ans. D]
The given bridg ’ .
The positive angle for impedance indicates
For balance in bridge,
that the branch consists of a series R-L circuit.
[ ] [ ]
Inductive reactance

On equating imaginary terms

√
3. [Ans. D]

And from real part

D ~

Under balance;

( )( ) ( )

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 Bridges
5. [Ans. C]
The schering bridge is as shown in where { } { }
represent the capacitance and series
resistance of the capacitor.
{ } { }

On putting the values of the parameters.

Negative value of imaginary part indicates,

there is capacitor.

7. [Ans. A]
Power factor of sheet First we balance phase angles. We know that
to balance the bridge, the sum of phase angles
of opposite arms must be equal. From the
figure phase angle of arm AB

Phase angle of BC & AD

Phase angle of CD

The first option is to modify impedance of

branch so that its phase angle is
6. [Ans. B]
decreased to less than by
placing a resistor in parallel with the capacitor
as shown in the figure.

( ) ( ) ( )

( )( ) Condition for balance

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 Bridges

Hence relative permittivity of specimen

Substituting above values, we get

9. [Ans. D]

8. [Ans. *]Range: 6 to 6

~
~

The bridge circuit is shown in figure ( )

( )( ) ( )

Equating imaginary parts

( ) ( )

Equating the real and imaginary parts, we

have

Let the loss of bushing be represented as in

series with the dielectric loss angle.
( )
From ① and ②, we have Equation ① is modified, due to loss in
capacitance,

Putting in equation ①
Hence we can write

When the capacitor is without specimen

dielectric, let its capacitance be

When the specimen is inserted, let the

capacitance be

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 Bridges
10. [Ans. A]

The arrangement of this bridge is shown in

Figure Value of standard resistance under
balance conditions

Internal resistance of bridge looking into

terminals b and d.

The deflection for a small change in resistance

Ratio of deflections for two galvanometers Fig. (a)

The modified circuit is shown in Fig. (b)

Thus galvanometer A has a sensitivity of 1.75

times that of galvanometer B as far as this
bridge is concerned, even though on its own
galvanometer A is less sensitive than Fig. (b)
galvanometer B. For balance

11. [Ans. *]Range: 0.25 to 0.35

The calculated values are as under:

12. [Ans. *]Range: 5.5 to 5.6

Delta-star transformation has to be used for Resistance of unknown resistor required for
the analysis. balance
This is shown in fig. (a)

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 Bridges
In the actual bridge the unknown resistor has
a value of or the deviation from the
balance conditions
Thevenin emf
[ ]

14. [Ans. C]
[ ]

Internal resistance of bridge looking into

terminals b and d.

Hence the current through the galvanometer

Deflection of the galvanometer At balanced condition

Sensitivity of bridge

13. [Ans. C]
For bridge balanced condition

( )

( )

Put equation ③ in equation ⑤

( ) ( ) ( )

Equating real terms

( )

Equating imaginary terms ( )

( )

15. [Ans. *]Range: 67.5 to 68.5

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 Bridges

Thus the two balance equations are;

The value of this ratio should be 2.2 for both

resistive and inductive balance and therefore
we must add a series resistance to arm ab.
Let this series resistance be the
modified circuit is

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