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Kirchhoff's Laws

Definition: Kirchhoff's Laws

Kirchhoff's Laws

Noun

1. (physics) two laws governing electric networks in which steady currents flow: (1) the sum of all the currents at a point is zero; (2) the sum of the voltage gains and drops around any closed circuit is zero.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

Specialty Definitions: Kirchhoff's Laws

Domain	Definitions
Physics	Kirchhoff's first lawAn incandescent solid or gas under high pressure will produce a continuous spectrum. (G.R. Kirchhoff). (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: Kirchhoff's Laws

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Kirchhoff's laws deal with the conservation of energy and conservation of charge when applied to electrical circuits. Although named after Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, they are often also wrongly called Kirchoff's laws. Kirchhoff stated another set of laws, also known as Kirchhoff's laws, relating to radiation from incandescent objects, so to avoid ambiguity the electrical laws described in this article are sometimes known as Kirchhoff's rules. The two rules were first described in 1845.

Kirchhoff's first law

This law is also called Kirchhoff's current law, Kirchhoff's point rule and Kirchhoff's first rule.

The principle of conservation of electric charge implies that:

At any point in an electrical circuit, the sum of currentss flowing towards that point is equal to the sum of currents flowing away from that point.

Kirchhoff's second law

This law is also called Kirchhoff's voltage law, Kirchhoff's loop rule and Kirchhoff's second rule.

The principle of conservation of energy implies that:

The directed sum of the electrical potential differences around a circuit must sum to zero. Otherwise, it would be possible to build a perpetual motion machine that passed a current in a circle around the circuit.

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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Kirchhoff's Laws."

Synonym: Kirchhoff's Laws

Synonym by domain: kirchhoff (electrical engineering).

Alternative Orthography: Kirchhoff's Laws

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4B 69 72 63 68 68 6F 66 66 27 73 4C 61 77 73

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001011 01101001 01110010 01100011 01101000 01101000 01101111 01100110 01100110 00100111 01110011 00100000 01001100 01100001 01110111 01110011

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#75 &#105 &#114 &#99 &#104 &#104 &#111 &#102 &#102 &#39 &#115 &#32 &#76 &#97 &#119 &#115

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004B 0069 0072 0063 0068 0068 006F 0066 0066 0027 0073 004C 0061 0077 0073

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

457584697474817272985246678985

INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Orthography
4. Bibliography

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.