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Concept
Kirchhoff's circuit laws
Summary
Kirchhoff's circuit laws are two equalities that deal with the current and potential difference (commonly known as voltage) in the lumped element model of electrical circuits. They were first described in 1845 by German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. This generalized the work of Georg Ohm and preceded the work of James Clerk Maxwell. Widely used in electrical engineering, they are also called Kirchhoff's rules or simply Kirchhoff's laws. These laws can be applied in time and frequency domains and form the basis for network analysis.
Both of Kirchhoff's laws can be understood as corollaries of Maxwell's equations in the low-frequency limit. They are accurate for DC circuits, and for AC circuits at frequencies where the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are very large compared to the circuits.
This law, also called Kirchhoff's first law, or Kirchhoff's junction rule, states that, for any node (junction) in an electrical circuit, the sum of currents flowing into that node is equal to the sum of currents flowing out of that node; or equivalently:
The algebraic sum of currents in a network of conductors meeting at a point is zero.
Recalling that current is a signed (positive or negative) quantity reflecting direction towards or away from a node, this principle can be succinctly stated as: where n is the total number of branches with currents flowing towards or away from the node.
Kirchhoff's circuit laws were originally obtained from experimental results. However, the current law can be viewed as an extension of the conservation of charge, since charge is the product of current and the time the current has been flowing. If the net charge in a region is constant, the current law will hold on the boundaries of the region. This means that the current law relies on the fact that the net charge in the wires and components is constant.
A matrix version of Kirchhoff's current law is the basis of most circuit simulation software, such as SPICE. The current law is used with Ohm's law to perform nodal analysis.
Official source
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