Table of Contents

PREFACE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. VOLTAGE & CURRENT LAWS
3. BASIC ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
4. NETWORK THEOREMS
5. CAPACITANCE
6. INDUCTANCE
7. AC FUNDAMENTALS
8. AC CIRCUITS
9. ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES (FOR AC)
10. NETWORK THEOREMS (FOR AC)
11. LAPLACE TRANSFORM
12. TRANSIENT ANALYSIS
13. 3-PHASE SYSTEMS
REFERENCES

1
 PREFACE
In today’s world, there’s an electronic gadget for everything
and inside these gadgets are circuits, little components
wired together to perform some meaningful function. Have
you wondered how a led display sign works or how a
calculator works or toy cars work? How is it possible??
Answer, all because of electrical circuits. These tiny
components when arranged in certain manner can do
wonders. Fascinating isn’t it? Our fascination with gadgets
and reliance on machinery is only growing day by day and
hence from an engineering perspective, it is absolutely
crucial to be familiar with the analysis and designing of such
Circuits, at least identify components.
Circuit analysis is one of basic subjects in engineering and
particularly important for Electrical and Electronics students.
So circuit analysis is a good starting point for anyone
wanting to get into the field. It is a very easy subject to
learn and understand, but messing up these ideas or
misunderstanding them, will lead to a lot of headache in
other subjects. In this book we provide a concise
introduction into basic Circuit analysis. A basic knowledge of
Calculus and some Physics are the only prerequisites
required to follow the topics discussed in the book. We've
tried to explain the various fundamental concepts of Circuit
theory in the simplest manner without an over reliance on
math. Also, we have tried to connect the various topics with
real life situations wherever possible. This way even first
timers can learn the basics of Circuit theory with minimum
effort. Hopefully the students will enjoy this different
approach to Circuit Analysis. The various concepts of the

2
subject are arranged logically and explained in a simple
reader-friendly language with illustrative figures.
This book is not meant to be a replacement for those
standard Circuit theory textbooks, rather this book should
be viewed as an introductory text for beginners to come in
grips with advanced level topics covered in those books.
This book will hopefully serve as inspiration to learn Circuit
theory in greater depths.
Readers are welcome to give constructive suggestions for
the improvement of the book and please do leave a review.

3
 1. INTRODUCTION
 

1.1 ELECTRICAL CHARGE

 
Have you ever wondered what Electricity is and where it
comes from? To answer these questions, we have to start
with the atom. Although we are more interested in the
properties of electricity than the phenomenon itself, it
wouldn’t hurt us to quickly discuss the basics.
Everything in the universe is made of atoms and every atom
consists of 3 types of particles, neutrons, protons and
electrons. Neutrons and protons are packed together in the
nucleus and make up the center of an atom, whereas the
electrons move around the nucleus in a constant motion. For
this discussion, we are only concerned about protons and
electrons or more specifically, a property these two particles
possess called the Electric Charge. Although it is very
unlikely you’ll ever come across a proper definition for
charge, the best we can come up with is, that charge is a
form of electrical energy. Protons have a positive charge and
Electrons have a negative charge. In a normal atom, the
number of protons is equal to the number of electron and
thus the atom as a whole is electrically neutral. Neutral
objects aren’t of much interest to us, we are more
interested in charged bodies. Electric Charge is denoted by
the letter Q.

4
 
The SI unit of electric charge is Coulomb (C) and it is the
charge possessed by 6.24 x 1018 electrons.
 

1.2 CURRENT
 
Previously we mentioned that free electrons are responsible
for the flow of Electric Current. The concept behind this
phenomenon is very simple, whenever a charged particle
moves, it produces an Electric Current. Obviously the
protons can’t move, because they are inside the nucleus.
And the electrons close to the nucleus are held tightly by
the force of attraction, so they can’t move either. So the
only way an Electric current is produced is through
movement of outer electrons, called the free electrons (it’s a
little different in electronics though).

5
To understand this better, consider the inside section of a
Conductor as shown below.

 
Conductors have tons of free electrons and they keep
moving in random direction (due to thermal energy), and
each of these small movements contribute to an Electric
current. You might be thinking, if an electric current is
produced this easily in a conductor, why do we need
batteries and generators and power plants and stuff. Can’t
we just hook up a small piece of copper wire to a bulb and
be done with it. Unfortunately, that won’t work. That’s
because the currents produced by each free electron are in
random direction (in accordance with the direction of their
motion) and when we consider the conductor as a whole,
these currents cancel each other out and net current is zero.
The way out of this problem is to make all the free electrons
drift in one direction and thus the net Electric Current adds
up to a non-zero value. To do this all we need is a little
effort, a force of sorts, called the EMF or the Electromotive
Force. We will discuss more about the EMF in the next
section.

6
So Electric Current can be defined as the flow of charge
(electrons) when subjected to an EMF. Or the more accurate
definition would be, Current is the rate of flow of
charge. Mathematically, Current I is equal to,

 
The unit of current is Ampere, named after French
mathematician and physicist André-Marie Ampère. One
ampere of current represents one coulomb of electrical
charge moving past a specific point in one second.
 

1.3 EMF
 
EMF stands for Electromotive force. The name may give you
the impression that electromotive force is a type of force.
Actually, it is not. As mentioned in the previous section, EMF
or the Electromagnetic force is an energy that can cause
current to flow in an electrical circuit or device. This means
that a current can flow in a circuit or a device, only if an EMF
is provided. Sources of EMF can be batteries, solar cells,
generators etc. EMF is denoted by the symbol E and is
measured in unit Volt (V).

7
 

1.4 POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE

 
Both EMF and Potential Difference are closely related and
are often used interchangeably in many places, but they
aren’t the same quantities. When a current flows through a
material, the electrons are accelerated due to the applied
EMF. But these electrons don’t gain much velocity, because
they keep colliding with ions in the material and due to this,
the kinetic energy of the electrons is converted to heat.
What this means is that, the electrons at one of the material
has more energy than the electrons at the other end, which
leads to a potential difference. This obviously is a rough
explanation, the actual physics behind phenomenon is more
complex and beyond the scope of this book. It is important
to note that, Potential difference is always measured
between 2 points and never at a single point.

8
To sum up, the EMF is the driving force that keeps electrons
in motion and Potential difference is the difference in energy
of the electrons as a current is passed through a material.
Both EMF and Potential difference have the common unit
Volt (V). The term Voltage can be used in place of Potential
difference or EMF.
 

1.5 OHM’S LAW

 
From the previous sections itself, it must be pretty clear that
the Voltage and the Current are two closely related
quantities. They have a cause effect relation as given by
this general equation:

Where the Voltage is the cause and the Current is the effect.
Now the question is, what could possibly be the opposition
to current? This is where we introduce a quantity called
Resistance. The concept of Resistance is analogous to
friction in mechanics. Every material has a tendency to
oppose current, but some more than the others. Materials
with large no. of free electrons like metals have low
resistance or a low tendency to oppose current. Such
materials are called Conductors. Whereas materials with
small no. of free electrons like plastic have high resistance.
Such materials are called Insulators. And some materials
fall in between, they offer some resistance, but not very
high either. They are called Semi-conductors.
 
Now let’s substitute the terms we introduced so far into our
general equation from earlier.

9
  

 
The result is this beautiful equation called the Ohm’s Law,
after the German physicist and mathematician Georg Simon
Ohm (weird name right??). It’s one of the most fundamental
things there is in electrical engineering. Get used to it,

10
because it will remain with you as long as you do anything
electrical related.
The Ohm’s law essentially implies that, the current
flowing through a material/circuit is directly
proportional to the Voltage applied across it,
provided that the resistance of the material remain
fixed. So if we were to apply twice the voltage across a
bulb, twice the amount of current would flow through it or if
we apply one third the voltage, then one third the current
would flow. Graphically the Ohm's law would look like,

 
The Unit of Resistance is Ohm and is denoted by the Greek
letter Ω.
 

1.6 CONDUCTANCE
 
While we are at it, let’s define one more new quantity called
Conductance. Conductance is the inverse of Resistance. It’s
a measure of how well a material allows current to flow

11
through it. The Unit of Conductance is Siemens and is
denoted by Ω−1.
 

1.7 RESISTOR
 
Have you seen one of these tiny components in an
electronic circuit before??
 

 
Those are resistors. A Resistor is a device that provide
resistance in an electrical circuit. WHAT?? But isn’t
resistance a bad thing? Yes, resistance does oppose current
and it does cause energy loss. But when used the right way
it isn’t always a bad thing. Do you know that resistance is
the reason we have bulbs and heaters? Resistors are
electrical components that help control the flow of current in
a circuit. A high resistance means there is less current
available for a given voltage. It is widely used in heating
applications, for biasing, voltage dividers and tons of other
applications.
The symbol for resistor is:

12
 

1.8 POWER
 
Electrical power is defined as the rate at which electrical
energy is transferred from an energy source to a circuit.
When current is passed through a resistor, energy is
dissipated as heat. It is easy to calculate Electrical power, it
is simply the product of the current (I) flowing through a
component and the voltage (V) across the component.

 
Applying the Ohm’s law, 2 other forms of equation can be
obtained,

 
Unit of electrical power is Watts.

13
 2. VOLTAGE & CURRENT
LAWS
 

2.1 SERIES CIRCUIT

 
A series circuit is a circuit in which any number of
components are connected one after the other, such that
there is a single path for the flow of current. For example, in
the circuit shown in the figure below, the Resistors R1 and R2
are in series, because they are connected at a common
point b. Similarly, Resistor R2 and the Voltage source are
also in series, with the common point c.

 
If there were any other components (that carry current)
connected at any of these nodes (a, b or c), then this circuit
wouldn’t be a series circuit anymore. For instance, if there

14
had been a third resistor R3 connected between nodes a and
b, as shown in the figure below, this is no longer a series
circuit. Clearly there are 2 paths for the current to flow,
through R1 & R3.

2.2 KIRCHHOFF’S VOLTAGE LAW

(KVL)
 
Kirchhoff’s Law’s….Wait!! “Laws ” you say?? You mean
there’s more than one law?? Yes, there are 2 Kirchhoff’s
Law’s: Kirchhoff’s Voltage law & the Kirchhoff’s Current Law.
Kirchhoff’s laws are the most fundamental laws, next to the
Ohm’s law, in Electrical engineering. But fortunately, just
like the Ohm’s law, these are 2 really simple laws. Even

15
simpler than the Ohm’s Law I would say, because there is no
formula, just a simple statement. The entire basis of Circuit
analysis are these 2 laws and the Ohm’s law. They are
basically spin offs to the energy and charge conservation
laws. We’ll get to the Kirchhoff’s Current Law in later
section. For now, we’ll focus on the Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law
or the KVL.
Kirchhoff’s voltage law (KVL) states that “the algebraic
sum of the potential rises and drops around a closed
loop (or path) is zero”.
Symbolically,

 
In layman’s terms Kirchhoff’s voltage law essentially means:
“Voltage supplied = Voltage used up, around a closed
loop”.
Forming a KVL equation is really easy, start at a certain
point of the circuit and note down all the potential changes
(either rises or drops) in one particular direction, till the
starting point is reached once again. Then equate the
resulting expression to zero. That’s it.

16
  
For the above Circuit, KVL equation is E –V1 –V2 = 0 or E
(Voltage supplied) = V1 +V2 (Voltage Used up). Do note that
KVL is applicable to all loops or closed paths, however
complex the circuit maybe.
 

2.3 RESISTORS IN SERIES

 
When dealing with a circuit containing large no of
components, it’s a smart thing to simplify the circuit. This
applies to resistors as well. A combination of resistors, be it
series or parallel or otherwise can be replaced by a single
resistance, called the equivalent or the effective resistance
of the circuit. For a series combination of resistors, the
equivalent resistance is found by simply adding the
individual resistance values. Mathematically,

17
 
The proof for this is pretty straight forward. Consider our
example (first one) from section 2.1. Let V1 & V2 are the
voltages across the resistors R1 and R2 respectively. Using
KVL, we know V = V1 + V2. Therefore,

2.4 VOLTAGE DIVIDER RULE

 
In the last section, we saw that in a series connection, the
resistors share a common current, but have different
voltage drops across them. Now we will try to find out the
exact magnitude of the voltage drops. For that we use the
Voltage Divider Rule.

18
  
From Ohm’s law,

 
Then the Voltage drops across the resistors are:

 
To sum up, the Voltage drop across a Resistor in series
connection is given,

19
 

2.5 PARALLEL CIRCUIT

 
A parallel circuit is a circuit in which any number of
components are connected across 2 common terminals,
such that they share a common voltage. For example, in the
circuit shown in the figure below, the Resistors R1 and R2 are
in parallel, because they are connected between the same
terminals a and b. The current will be divided amongst the
resistors, according as their resistance values.

2.6 KIRCHHOFF’S CURRENT LAW

(KCL)
 

20
According to the Kirchhoff’s Current Law, the algebraic
sum of the currents entering and leaving a node or a
junction of a circuit is zero. It’s easily evident that this
law is derived from the Law of conservation of charge. The
idea is really simple, once a current is generated in a circuit,
it is distributed throughout the circuit. It cannot just
accumulate in a wire or vanish into thin air.
Symbolically,

 
Consider the example shown below and let’s formulate the
KCL equation for node a. At node a, there are 3 currents,
one entering and 2 leaving. Hence the KCL equation is, I = I1
+I2.

2.7 RESISTORS IN PARALLEL

 
For a parallel combination of resistors, the reciprocal of the
equivalent resistance is the sum of the reciprocals of the

21
individual resistances. Mathematically,

 
Consider our example from section 2.1. Let I1 & I2 be the
currents flowing through the resistors R1 and R2
respectively. Using KCL, we know I = I1 + I2.

2.8 CURRENT DIVIDER RULE

 
The Current Divider Rule is used to determine the
magnitude of current entering each branch of a parallel
connection.

22
 
From Ohm’s law,

 
Then the Currents flowing through resistors are:

 
To sum up, the Current flowing through a Resistor in parallel
connection is given by,

23
  

2.9 OPEN & SHORT CIRCUIT

 
Short Circuit is a condition where two points in a circuit are
directly connected to each other through a path of zero
resistance. The voltage across the 2 points will be always
zero in case of a short circuit.

Open Circuit is exactly the opposite condition as short

circuit. In case of an open circuit, there is no connection
between two points in a circuit and hence no current flows
between the 2 points.
 

24
 3. BASIC ANALYSIS
TECHNIQUES
 

3.1 ENERGY SOURCES

 
There are basically 2 types of energy sources: Voltage
source & Current source. Again they can be classified as
ideal & practical sources. First we’ll discuss ideal sources
then consider practical sources.
 

3.1.1 Voltage Source

An ideal Voltage source is an Energy source which
gives constant Voltage across its terminals
irrespective of the current drawn by the load
connected to its terminals. At any instant of time, the
voltage across the terminals remain the same. Thus
the V-I Characteristics of an ideal voltage source is a
straight line as shown.

25
 
But it is not possible to make such Voltage sources in
practice. Practically, all Voltage sources have a small
internal resistance. For analysis purposes, we assume
that this internal resistance is in series with the
voltage source and is represented by Rse. Because of
Rse, the voltage across the terminals decreases
slightly with the increase in the current.

26
  
Usually, Voltage sources are manufactured keeping
the internal resistance to the minimum, such that it
acts more or less like an ideal voltage source (till a
max load current limit). Batteries are an example of
Voltage source.
 

3.1.2 Current Source

No prizes for guessing what a current source is, an
ideal current source is a power source that gives
constant current, irrespective of the voltage
appearing across its terminals

27
 
But a practical Current source hardly ever functions
this way. In a practical Current source, the current
decreases slightly as the Voltage across the load
terminals increase. This behavior can be analyzed by
considering a high internal resistance, represented by
Rsh in parallel with the source.

28
  

3.2 COMBINATION OF SOURCES

 
In many circuits, it is necessary to use multiple energy
sources. Analyzing such circuits directly is a bit of a mess.
So what we usually do is to reduce the multiple sources to a
single equivalent source, making the analysis a lot easier.
Like the resistors and other circuit components, power
sources too can have series or parallel combinations.
 

3.2.1 Combination of Voltage

sources
If two Voltage sources are in series i.e. they are connected
back to back, the effective voltage is simply their algebraic
sum. It is important to consider their polarities while doing
so. If their polarities are the same, then the effective voltage
is their sum and if their polarities are opposing, then the
effective voltage is the difference of the 2 voltages.

29
  

 
Unlike a series connection, any two Voltage sources can’t be
combined in parallel. Practically, only Voltage sources of the
same magnitude are combined in parallel. If 2 unequal
Voltage sources are connected in parallel, there will be a
circulating current between them. Essentially what happens
is that, the smaller voltage source is acting as a load for the
larger voltage source. The magnitude of the current will
depend on the value of the internal resistances of the 2
sources. Since the internal resistance is usually very small, a
very large current flows, leading to overheating and possibly
irreparable damage. Don’t even think about connecting 2
ideal voltage sources in parallel, results could be

30
catastrophic. And If you somehow manage to connect two
voltage sources in parallel without damaging anything, the
voltage across the combination will be somewhere between
the 2 values depending on the internal resistances.
If 2 equal voltage sources are connected in parallel, the
single equivalent source will have the same voltage as the 2
sources. The only reason to do this would be if the load
requires a higher current than the source can supply by
itself. Other than that, no good can come from connecting 2
voltage sources in parallel.
 

3.2.1 Combination of Current

sources
Connecting two Current sources in series is a bit like
connecting two Voltage sources in parallel. It’s simply not a
good idea. There are very few cases where such connection
is required in practice, but that’s a rarity. In any case only 2
current sources of same magnitude are connected in series.
The magnitude of single equivalent source will supply the
same current as the individual sources. Connecting 2
different Current sources in series is a violation of the
Kirchhoff’s current law. Again, you don’t want to be messing
with Kirchhoff!! The problem with connecting 2 unequal
current sources in series is that, you are asking the small
current source to supply more than hat it is capable of.
Intuitively, this means one source is trying to push more
charge than the other source is capable of accepting.
If two current sources are connected in parallel, the
effective current output of the combination is their algebraic
sum. If the sources are in opposite direction, then the single
equivalent source will produce current in the direction of the
larger current source.

31
 

3.3 SOURCE TRANSFORMATION

 
In some circuits, you will encounter the presence of both
current and voltage sources. This makes things a little
trickier. Lucky for us, it is possible to convert one type of
source to other type and it’s pretty straightforward.
Consider a voltage source having an internal resistance Rse
connected to a load resistor RL. Now consider a current
source having an internal resistance Rsh supplying the same
load. If the two supplies were to be equivalent, then the load
current (or voltage) should be the same in both cases.

32
 
The current delivered by the voltage source is given by,

 
And the current delivered by the current source (applying
current division rule) is given by,

 
Equating both equations,

33
 
Now if we equate the numerators and denominators
separately, we get,

 
Once the sources are transformed into same kind, they can
be easily combined in series or parallel, as we did in the
previous section.
 

3.4 MESH ANALYSIS

 
Using Circuit analysis techniques, we are essentially trying
to find the voltage across or current through a component in
a circuit. Two of the most popular and basic analysis
techniques are the Node and the Mesh analysis. These
techniques were developed as an extension to the KVL and
KCL. We’ll learn about Mesh analysis in this section & Node
analysis in the next.
 
In mesh analysis, we are dividing the circuit into areas or
loops called Meshes and assigning them a Mesh current.
Consider the circuit below, just from observation, we can
identify 3 loops or meshes. Do note that, these loops have

34
some common components. Now assume a loop current to
flow in each of these loops and give them a random
direction (although normally we assume clockwise direction
as in the figure).

 
At first glance, this may seem like extra work, but it’s worth
it, because reduces the no. of equations significantly,
making calculation very easy. Now let’s try out an example.
Consider the circuit below, it has 2 voltage sources and a
bunch of resistors. Simply through observation, we can
identify 3 meshes. Let’s assume currents IA, IB, IC flow
through the 3 meshes respectively.

35
 
Now let’s consider each mesh separately and form
equations using KVL. Do note that the 5Ω resistor is
common to both meshes A and B, so the current through it
is the difference of the two mesh currents (because the
currents are in opposite direction w.r.t 5Ω resistor.)

Similarly we form equation for the other too meshes.

36
 

37
  
Now we have 3 unknown variables IA, IB, IC and 3 equations.
This can be easily solved using the Cramer’s rule or by
substitution.
 

3.5 SUPER MESH

 
Mesh analysis is all well and good, but what if a current
source is present in the circuit?? We could assign an
unknown voltage across the current source, apply KVL
around each mesh as before, and then relate the source
current to the assigned mesh currents. This is generally the
more difficult approach. The easier method is to create
something called the Super Mesh. Super Mesh is basically a

38
mesh formed by combining 2 adjacent meshes, ignoring the
branch which contains the current source.
For example, in the circuit below, we create a Super Mesh
by combining meshes A and B. The Super Mesh equation
can be obtained by applying KVL to the super mesh,
ignoring the common branch (that contains the current
source).

 
The second equation relating the 2 mesh currents can be
obtained by applying KCL to the common branch. In our
example, it is,

3.6 NODAL ANALYSIS

 

39
Much like the Mesh analysis, Nodal analysis is another
commonly used circuit analysis technique. The Nodal
analysis is based on KCL, whereas Mesh analysis is based on
KVL. Before we go any further, we need to define a node. A
Node is simply a point where two or more circuit elements
meet. Let’s try using Nodal analysis in practice. We’ll use
the same circuit we used in Mesh analysis example to get a
better understanding between the similarities and
differences between the two techniques.

 
The first task in Nodal analysis is to identify the nodes in the
circuit. Do note that, in Nodal analysis, we are only
interested in nodes where 3 or more components meet. If
we were to consider all the nodes, the method will still work,
but the number of steps will increase. In our example, we
can identify 3 such nodes. The next step is to assume one of
those nodes as a reference node (usually the bottom one is
chosen). The idea is assume zero voltage/potential at a
point (Reference Node) in the circuit, so that we can

40
measure/calculate voltage at different points with respect to
this reference point. Once the Reference node is fixed,
assume voltages at the other nodes (V1, V2, V3 etc.). Once
these things are taken care of, it’s time to look at the nodes
separately and form node equations.

 
Applying KCL at Node 1,

 
Similarly applying KCL at Node 2,

41
  
Solving these equations, we can obtain the node voltages
and the rest of the parameters.
 

3.7 SUPER NODE

 
In some circuits, a voltage source maybe present between 2
nodes. To deal with such circuits it’s best to use the Super
Node analysis. The first step is the same, to identify nodes
and assign nodal voltages. Once that is done, we need to
create something called the super node, by combining the 2
nodes ignoring the voltage source in between them. Then to
obtain the super node equation, KCL is applied to both the

42
nodes at the same time. The current through the common
branch can be ignored, because the current exiting node 1
and the current entering node 2 are the same and hence
they cancel out when taking the combined KCL equation.

 
The second equation connecting the 2 nodes can be
obtained by equating the difference between the 2 node
voltages to the voltage of the source i.e. V1 –V2 = Vx. All the
other nodes can be treated as before and corresponding
node equations can be found.
 

43
 4. NETWORK THEOREMS
 
While the circuit analysis techniques discussed so far, are
very handy for simple circuits. They aren’t are the preferred
choice for more complex circuits. For that we need the help
of some theorems. The idea is to use one or more of these
theorems to convert the complex circuit into a simple
equivalent, which can be easily analyzed using our familiar
basic analysis techniques. Let’s look at these Theorems one
by one in detail.
 

4.1 SUPERPOSITION THEOREM

 
Analysis of circuits having multiple energy sources is not the
easiest of tasks, but Superposition theorem provides an
easy solution to this. According to the Superposition
theorem, the effect or response in a component when
2 or more energy sources (voltage or current
sources) are applied together is equal to the sum of
effect/responses when the sources are applied
individually. This may seem complicated, but that’s just
the statement, the application is very easy.
 
What the Superposition theorem really does, is to convert a
circuit with n energy sources into n circuits with a single
energy source acting individually, so that they can be
analyzed individually and the results can be added up. To
study the effects of one particular energy source on the
circuit, the other sources need to be eliminated. This can be
done by Short Circuiting the Voltage sources and Open

44
circuiting the Current sources, which are not under
consideration.
Now let’s try and use the Superposition theorem in practice
with the help of an example. In the circuit shown below
there are 2 energy sources, one current and one voltage
source and suppose we need to find the voltage across
resistance R2.

 
1. First thing to do is to split up the circuit into 2 circuits
with a single energy source, as shown above.
 
2. In the first circuit, as the current source is open
circuited, the branch containing resistance R3 is no
longer relevant. By using the voltage divider rule, the
voltage across Resistor R2 can be found as,

45
  
3. In the second circuit, the voltage across R2 can be
determined with the help of the current division rule.

 
4. Once these results have been calculated, all you to do
is to combine these results together, to find the voltage
across the resistor R2 due to the both sources acting
simultaneously.

4.2 THEVENIN’S THEOREM

 
In circuit analysis, we often encounter large circuits and
most times we are interested only in a portion of the circuit,
and not the circuit as a whole. In such cases, the analysis is
cumbersome and the possibility of making errors is very
high. Lucky for us, French engineer Léon Charles Thevenin
found a solution. It’s what’s known as the Thevenin’s
Theorem.
According to the Thevenin’s theorem, any two-terminal,
dc network can be replaced by an equivalent circuit
consisting of a voltage source and a series resistor.

46
  
Vth is called the Thevenin equivalent voltage and Rth is called
the Thevenin equivalent resistance. The Thevenin’s theorem
enables us to replace a large part of a circuit, often a
complicated and uninteresting part, with a very simple
equivalent.
With the help of an example, let’s see the Thevenin’s
theorem in action. (We have used a simple circuit for better
understanding.)

47
In the circuit shown above, let’s try to find the current
through the 10Ω resistor.
1. Firstly identify the part of the circuit, whose equivalent
you want to determine. In this case it’s everything
except the 10Ω resistor.
 
2. Then temporarily remove the load resistor (10Ω)
resistor from the circuit.
 
3. To find the Thevenin equivalent Resistance (RTH),
remove all the energy sources in the circuit. This can be
done by short circuiting the voltage sources and open
circuiting the current sources. In our example, there is
one voltage source, short it out.
 

 
4. Now find the equivalent resistance between the
terminals i.e. as if were looking from the terminals. This
will give the value of RTH. In our example, 3Ω resistor is
in parallel with 6Ω resistor, which are in series with 6Ω.
Therefore RTH = 8Ω (do the math.)
 
5. To find the Thevenin equivalent Voltage (VTH), return the
energy sources to the way it was before, then

48
 determine the open circuit voltage across the terminals.

 
Do note that current cannot flow through the 6Ω
resistor (highlighted) because the load resistance is
open circuited and hence no voltage drop across it.
Therefore using Voltage Division rule, VTH = 6 x 9/ (3+6)
= 6V.
 
6. Now that we obtained both RTH and VTH values, we are
ready to put the load resistance back in its place and
obtain the Thevenin equivalent circuit.

49
 7. Now solving this circuit is a piece of cake. (Current
through 10 resistor is 0.33 Amperes)
 

4.3 NORTON’S THEOREM

 
In the previous chapter we saw that it is possible to replace
Voltage source by a Current source and vice versa.
American engineer E.L. Norton made good use of this idea
and theorized a corollary to the Thevenin’s theorem called
the Norton’s theorem.
Norton’s theorem states that, any two-terminal, dc
network can be replaced by an equivalent circuit
consisting of a current source and a parallel resistor.

 
Now let’s try the Norton’s theorem on our example from
previous section. Steps are as follows:
1. Firstly identify the part of the circuit, whose equivalent
you want to determine and then temporarily remove
the load resistor (10Ω) resistor from the circuit.
 

50
2. The Norton equivalent Resistance is the same as the
Thevenin equivalent Resistance. So the procedure is the
same, remove all the energy sources in the circuit and
find the resistance between the load terminals. (RN =
8Ω).
 
3. To find the Norton equivalent Current (IN), return the
energy sources to the way it was before, then
determine the short circuit current through the
terminals. (IN = 0.25 A )

 
4. So the Norton’s equivalent circuit is:

51
 5. If you solve the circuit and the current through the 10
resistor would be 0.333A, exactly same as obtained
from Thevenin’s theorem method.
 
We can easily switch between the two equivalent circuits
simply by doing source transformation. In doing so we can
also come up a relation between the 3 quantities RTH, IN and
VTH.

4.4 MAXIMUM POWER

TRANSFER THEOREM
 
When we connect a load to a circuit, say a speaker to an
amplifier circuit, it’s only sensible that the maximum power
should be delivered to the load. So how do we go about
this?? Change the circuit to suit the load or change the load
to suit the circuit?? Both are possible, but we can’t randomly
keep altering the components, we need to figure this out on
paper. This is exactly what the Maximum Power Transfer
theorem is there for.
According to the Maximum Power Transfer theorem, the
maximum power is delivered to the load, when the

52
load resistance is equal to the Thevenin equivalent
resistance of the circuit.
First let’s make sense of this intuitively, before we go into
the mathematical proof.

 
We know that power is the product of Voltage and Current,
so for maximum power, both quantities need to be high. Say
the load resistance is low, then the Current will be very high,
but the Voltage will be equally low. Similarly, if the load
resistance is high, then the Voltage will be high, but the
Current though it will be very low. So clearly the extremes
are not the way to go. At RL =RTH, both voltage and current
will high enough to deliver maximum power. It’s promising,
but to confirm we need to use math.

53
  
To find the RL corresponding to maximum power, PL is
differentiated with respect to RL, keeping RTH constant and
equated to zero. If you actually bother to do the math, you
can obtain the relation RL =RTH.
The Maximum Power Transfer theorem isn’t a circuit analysis
technique as such, but rather a practical application of the
Thevenin and Norton theorems.
 

4.5 SUBSTITUTION THEOREM

 
According to the Substitution theorem, any branch of a dc
network can be replaced by a different combination
of elements as long as the new combination of
elements will maintain the same voltage across and
current through, as the original branch.
 
For example, consider this particular of a network, it has a
voltage of 10V across it and a current of 2A flowing through
it.

54
  
This branch can be replaced by any combination of
elements as long as the voltage and the current remains the
same. Shown below are some of the possible replacement
combinations.

Substitution theorem gives you the ability to replace

complicated branches of a circuit with convenient
components to make circuit analysis simpler.
 

4.6 RECIPROCITY THEOREM

 

55
This is one of those nasty theorems, a bit hard to
understand, and has limited application. But we are
engineers and we don’t have a choice but to learn.
According to the Reciprocity theorem, if a voltage source
in a circuit causes a current in some other part of the
circuit, then the positions of the voltage source and
the resulting current can be interchanged without a
change in the current. There’s no way that you can
understand this theorem without the help of an example.
Let’s go step by step.
Consider this example, here the 10V voltage source causes
a current I to flow throw the 4 Ω resistor. If you do the math,
you will get the magnitude of I as 0.45 A.

 
Now if you interchange the positions of the voltage source
and the resultant current, you will get this circuit, shown
below.

56
  
The 10V source will produce a current I’ in its new position.
Let’s calculate it. We’ve used mesh analysis (but you are
free to use anything) and we got 2 equations: 4I’ -2I1= 0 and
-2I’ +12 I1= 10. Solving them, we get I’ as 0.45A, which is
the same as before. This is what the Reciprocity Theorem is.
The ratio V/I is known as the transfer impedance.
Do keep in mind that the reciprocity theorem’s use is strictly
limited to single source circuits.
 

57
 5. CAPACITANCE
 

5.1 CAPACITORS
 
A capacitor is an electrical device that is used to
store electrical energy. Isn’t that what batteries are
for?? Yes…In a way, a capacitor is like a battery, they
both store electrical energy. But the difference is in
how they store energy and hence their applications
differ. In a battery, chemical reactions produce
electrons at one terminal and absorb electrons at the
other terminal. Whereas, a capacitor is much simpler,
it cannot produce new electrons, it only stores them.

58
Next to the resistor, the capacitor is the most
commonly encountered component in electrical
circuits. A capacitor is constructed out of two metal
plates, separated by an insulating material called
dielectric. The plates are conductive and they are
usually made of aluminum, tantalum or other metals,
while the dielectric can be made out of any kind of
insulating material such as paper, glass, ceramic or
anything that obstructs the flow of the current. In
fact, you can make a simple capacitor can be made
from two strips of aluminum foil separated by two
thin layers of wax paper (Check out this instructable :
http://www.instructables.com/id/Aluminum-Foil-Plate-
Capacitor/). Of course, our homemade capacitor
won’t work very well, but it shows capacitor like
behavior nonetheless.
Since the plates are made of metal, they contain a
huge no. of free electrons. In their normal state, the
plates are neutral, as there is no excess or deficiency
of electrons. But when we connect a power source to
the metal plates of the capacitor, a current will try to
flow i.e. the electrons from the plate connected to the
positive lead of the battery will start moving to the
plate connected to the negative lead of the battery.
However, because of the dielectric between the
plates, the electrons won’t be able to pass through
the capacitor, so they will start accumulating on the
plate. After a certain number of electrons
accumulated on the plate, the battery will not have
the sufficient energy to push any new electrons. This
leaves the top plate with a deficiency of electrons

59
(i.e. positive charge) and the bottom plate with an
excess of electrons (i.e. negative charge). In this
state, the capacitor is said to be charged. This state
will remain even after the battery is removed and the
Capacitor will only discharge once a load is
connected across it.

60
 
The ability of a capacitor to store an electric charge is
referred to as its capacitance. The capacitance C is the ratio
of charge stored Q to the potential difference V between the
conductors. Mathematically,

So a better capacitor would be the one able to store more

charge for a particular voltage applied. Capacitance is
measured in farads. This is a very large unit and hence most
capacitors are rated in microfarads or less. The commonly
used symbols for Capacitors are:

61
 

5.2 HYDRAULIC ANALOGY

 
A better understanding of how Capacitors store charge can
be gained with the help of a hydraulic analogy. Consider the
arrangement shown below, it consists of a water tank
separated by a diaphragm D in the middle and a piston P to
force water into either side of the diaphragm.
 

62
 
Under normal circumstance, when the piston is left
untouched, the diaphragm is flat as shown by the dotted
line. It’s similar to an uncharged capacitor, it has no energy.
But if the piston is pushed towards the left, water is drawn
from the right side of the diaphragm and at the same time
water is being forced into the left side. Under this condition
the diaphragm is no longer flat, as shown by the full line.
Greater the force applied to the piston, more water is
displaced, and hence the diaphragm is under greater stress.
The force applied to the piston is analogous to the EMF
applied, and the water displaced to the charge displaced, in
case of a capacitor. Just like the diagram separates the two
halves of the tank and doesn’t allow water from either side
to mix, the dielectric separate the charge in a capacitor.
If we now remove the force on the piston, the diaphragm
will try to release its stress (energy) by becoming flat, hence
pushing the piston back to its original position. This is
exactly what happens when a charged capacitor is
connected to a load resistance. A current rushes through the

63
resistance till the energy stored is released. The rate of flow
of water is dependent on the resistance offered by the
pipes, much like the rate of flow of charge (current) is
dependent on the resistance offered by the wires.
The diaphragm will rupture if sufficient enough force is
applied on the piston, just as the Capacitor will breakdown
under excess voltage.
 

5.3 CAPACITORS IN PARALLEL

 
Like with resistors, capacitors can also be connected in
series or parallel combination and to analyze such circuits,
we can find equivalent capacitance for these combinations.
When a set of capacitors are connected in parallel, the total
equivalent capacitance is the sum of individual
capacitances.

Suppose two capacitors, having capacitances C1 and C2

farads are connected in parallel across a potential difference

64
of V volts. Let the charge on C1 be Q1 coulombs and that on
C2 be Q2 coulombs, where.

 
If we were to replace the capacitors by a single equivalent
capacitor C, then a charge Q= Q1 + Q2 would be produced
by the same potential difference.

 
This result can be extended to any no. of capacitors
connected in parallel. For ‘n’ capacitors in parallel,

5.4 CAPACITORS IN SERIES

 
For a series combination of capacitors, the reciprocal of the
equivalent capacitance is the sum of the reciprocals of the
individual capacitances.

65
Suppose two capacitors, having capacitances C1 and C2
farads are connected in series across a potential difference
of V volts. Let he voltages across C1 and C2 be V1 and V2
volts respectively. Obviously, because it’s a series
connection, the currents and hence the charge flowing
through the capacitors are the same.
 

Now if we were to replace the 2 capacitors with an

equivalent capacitor of capacitance C, then it would have
the same charge Q, when connected across the voltage V.
Also from KVL, we know that V = V1 + V2. Therefore,

66
 
This result can be extended to any no. of capacitors
connected in series. For ‘n’ capacitors in series,

 
Do note that the expression for capacitors in series and
resistors in parallel are the same and similarly the
expression for capacitors in parallel and resistors in series
are also the same.
 

5.5 CHARGING & DISCHARGING

OF A CAPACITOR
 
A Capacitor doesn’t charge up all of a sudden, when
connected to a voltage source. It takes some definite time
for the capacitor to become fully charged and it does so in
an exponential manner. When an uncharged capacitor is

67
connected to a DC source, the voltage across is zero, as if
there is a short circuit, then the voltage exponentially
increases to the applied voltage after a while. On the
contrary, as soon the source is connected, the max current
rushes to the capacitor. Later as the time passes, the
current decreases to zero and acts like an open circuit. How
fast the capacitor charges up depends on any resistance
present in the circuit.

 
A fully charged capacitor will discharge in exactly the
reverse manner, the voltage drops and the current picks up
exponentially.

68
 
We’ll study this in greater detail with the help of Laplace
transform in chapter 12.
 

5.6 ENERGY STORED BY

CAPACITORS
 
The energy stored in a Capacitor is basically the energy the
battery expended in moving electrons from the positive
plate to the negative plate of the capacitor against their
natural tendency. Suppose a voltage V is applied to
capacitor terminals, then the work done transferring an
infinitesimal amount of charge dq from the negative to the
positive plate is simply,

 
The work done is a variable quantity, because as the charge
accumulates, more work needs to be done in moving the
electrons. Similarly, Voltage is also a function of charge.
Hence the incremental work is given by,

69
To find the total work done, we need to integrate this
quantity from 0 to the maximum charge Q.

 
This expression has different forms, based on the quantities
you choose:

70
 6. INDUCTANCE
 

6.1 ELECTROMAGNETISM
 
Firstly, Electromagnetism is a huge topic and doesn’t really
have a place in a circuit analysis text. But since we want to
give our readers a proper introduction to inductance, we will
quickly go through the fundamental ideas in
electromagnetism without going into the minute details.
The most fundamental idea in electromagnetism is that
there is magnetic field surrounding every current carrying
object. These magnetic fields take the shape of concentric
rings around a straight wire, called magnetic field lines.
Larger the current flowing through wire, more the no. of
magnetic field lines. These lines are not random, they have
direction, which can be determined by using the Right hand
thumb rule. It goes like this, if you point your thumb in the
direction of the current, then the fingers curl in the direction
of the field lines

71
 
Similarly, when current flows through a coil, a magnetic field
is generated, such that coil acts like a magnet with a north
and south polarity. The pattern of field lines is as shown
below. Do note that field lines are concentric if you consider
a tiny portion of the coil, but these field lines add and cancel
each other giving us this effective pattern. By the way these
sort of coils are called Solenoids.

72
 
Faraday’s Laws: Michael Faraday formulated 2 laws, which
form the basis of Electromagnetic studies, called the
Faraday’s Laws. These laws introduces us to the
phenomenon called Electromagnetic Induction.
According to the Faraday’s first law, when a conductor is
placed in a varying magnetic field, an EMF gets
induced across the conductor and if the conductor
offers a closed circuit then induced current flows
through it.
And Faraday’s second law states that, the induced EMF is
directly proportional to the rate of change of
magnetic flux.
If you place a bar magnet near a wire, nothing happens, no
voltage is induced. But if you move the magnet such that
some of the flux lines (imaginary) are cut by the wire, then a
voltage is induced.
There are two ways to obtain varying magnetic field:

73
 1. One is relative spatial movement that is, if the distance
between the magnet and the conductor keeps
changing, the magnetic field also keeps changing and
induction is possible.
 
2. The other is to vary the magnetic field originating from
the source itself. This is not possible with permanent
magnets, but it’s easy to do with solenoid magnets we
discussed earlier. All you need to do is to vary the
current through the coils, the magnetic field also varies
as a result.
 
Guess what would happen if we placed 2 coils close to each
other, one connected to a varying current source and the
other to an ammeter? Yes, the ammeter will show
deflection, proving that a current has been induced in the
second coil.
 

 
So can we just place many coils in the proximity of a current
carrying coil and induce current in all of them? Yes, that’s

74
possible. Wait! Did we just invent a new method to generate
electricity?? Unfortunately not, there’s a catch in all this,
called mutual induction. When we induce a current in the
secondary coil, this current will produce itself produce a flux
in the secondary coil. This flux will link with primary coil,
inducing an EMF. So this is a mutual process. To sum up, the
primary induces a voltage, therefore a current in the
secondary, which in turn will induce a voltage and a current
back in the primary.
The catch is that the current induced back in the primary
will be in the opposite direction as the original applied
current in the primary, thus reducing the overall effect. This
isn’t a wild theory or anything, it’s a direct consequence of
the law of conservation of energy. In electromagnetics it’s
called the Lenz’s law. Lenz's Law ensures that the electrical
energy of the primary coil is reduced by the same amount
as the energy gained by the secondary coil. In layman’s
terms, an induced effect is always such as to oppose the
cause that produced it.
Electromagnetic induction is the principle behind the
working of devices like transformers, motors etc.
Now there’s another type of Inductance called Self
Inductance. We’ll study about it in detail in the next section.
 

6.2 INDUCTOR
 
Inductor is the final member of our amazing trio that
includes the resistor and the capacitor. Like the other two
components, the inductor is practically used everywhere.
Have you seen a copper coil in an electronic circuit?? That’s
the inductor, that’s right it’s just a coil, nothing else.

75
  
Inductor like the capacitor is an energy storing device, but it
uses a completely different mechanism to do so. While the
capacitor stores energy in the form of electrostatic energy,
the inductor stores its energy in the form of magnetic
energy. Despite this, Inductors aren’t primarily used as a
storage devices, they are commonly used as filters and
chokes. That’s because Inductors have the ability to
suppress variation in current flowing through it.
 
The inductors ability to resist variation in current can be
attributed to a phenomenon called Self Induction. The
phenomenon can be better understood with the help of the
figure below.

76
  
Consider just two loops of an inductor coil. When a current is
passed through the inductor or more specifically the first
loop of the inductor, it produces magnetic a field around it in
a concentric manner (as with any other conductor). This
magnetic field created by the first loop also links with the
second loop, because of their proximity. The natural
response of the second loop to this magnetic field, is to
produce a current (or a counter magnetic field as
represented by the bottom ring) such as to oppose the
original current, in accordance with the Lenz’s law. The
direction of the current induced in the second loop due to
the field generated by the first loop is show by the dotted
arrow. These currents will be generated whenever there is a
variation in current in the inductor and it opposes the
original inductor current. So this ability of an Inductor to
oppose change in current is called the Self Inductance or
simply Inductance. It is denoted by the letter L and its unit is
Henry (H).
 

77
Our analysis was just with 2 loops, but the inductance will
increase if the number of winds in the coil is increased since
the magnetic field from one coil will have more coils to
interact with. So self-induction in a way, is the mutual
induction between the loops of an inductor coil.
The commonly used symbol for an Inductor is,

6.3 INDUCTORS IN SERIES

 
For inductors in series, the total inductance is simply the
sum of individual inductances, just as with resistors in
series.

78
Do note that this result is under the assumption that the
magnetic fields of the inductors do not interact with each
other.
 

6.4 INDUCTORS IN PARALLEL

 
For a parallel combination of inductors, the reciprocal of the
equivalent inductance is the sum of the reciprocals of the
individual inductances, just as with resistors.

 
Once again, this result is under the assumption that the
magnetic fields of the inductors do not interact with each
other.

79
 

6.5 CHARGING & DISCHARGING

OF A INDUCTOR
 
Like the capacitor, it takes some definite time for the
inductor to become fully charged. When an uncharged
inductor is connected to a DC source, it acts as an open
circuit and the voltage across it is equal to the applied
voltage, then the voltage exponentially decreases to zero
after a while. On the contrary, the current flowing the
capacitor initially is zero. Later as the time passes, the
current builds to a maximum value and acts like a short
circuit. How fast the capacitor charges up depends on any
resistance present in the circuit.

 
A fully charged inductor will discharge in exactly the reverse
manner, the voltage picks up and the current drops
exponentially.

80
 

6.6 ENERGY STORED BY AN

INDUCTOR
 
The EMF induced across the inductor due to variation in
current (which leads to change in flux) is given by,

 
Therefore the instantaneous power which must be supplied
to initiate the current in the inductor is,

81
To find the total work done, we need to integrate this
quantity from 0 to the maximum charge I.

82
 7. AC FUNDAMENTALS
 

7.1 INTRODUCTION TO AC
 
So far we have only discussed about DC circuits and its
analysis. Now we’ll turn our attention to AC circuits. AC
stands for Alternating current. AC is of interest to us,
because 90% of supply used for commercial purposes is AC.
DC supply, we dealt with so far had constant magnitude and
direction (positive to negative). A DC source like your car
battery will always have a constant magnitude between its
terminals. Its positive and negative terminals will always
remain as it is. On the contrary, for AC supply like your
power outlet, both magnitude and direction changes
periodically. The whole process takes place in 2 parts or 2
half cycles, Positive half cycle and the negative half cycle. In
the positive half cycle, the voltage (and therefore the
current) will gradually increase from 0 to a max value, then
starts decreasing back to zero. The same thing happens in
the negative half cycle, but in reverse direction. Reverse
direction?? So does the current flows from negative to
positive terminal in the negative half cycle?? No, it doesn’t
happen that way. It’s the terminals that change its polarity.
The terminal that would have been positive in the positive
half cycle changes to negative in the negative half cycle and
similarly for the other terminal. This essentially means that
there is no fixed Positive and Negative terminals for AC
supply. A terminal can have one polarity in a half cycle and
the opposite polarity in the other half cycle.
 

83
  

AC is complex, DC was straightforward. Why would we even

bother generating AC? That would be the obvious question
on your mind at this point. The answer is simple, it’s a way
lot easier to generate, transmit and manipulate AC supply.

84
Unfortunately for us, this simplicity in operation doesn’t
translate into easier math.
So far we have discussed about variation of voltage in AC
supply, but not about the pattern of this variation. Does the
voltage shoot up to a max value all of a sudden and fall
back to zero again or does it follow a triangular pattern??

 
All these patterns are called waveforms. A waveform is
basically a plot of a quantity (in our case voltage/current)
against time. All these waveforms shown in the figure above
and many more, are definite possibilities and many of them
have real practical applications. But the pattern or
waveform of our interest at least in this book, is the sine
waveform. For commercial AC supply pure sine wave is the
most preferred waveform, because it’s easier to generate
and mathematically simpler to analyze.
 

7.2 TERMINOLOGY RELATED TO

A WAVEFORM
 

7.2.1 Instantaneous value

85
The value or the magnitude of an alternating quantity at a
particular instant of time is known as its instantaneous
value. For example, in the Voltage-time waveform, the
instantaneous values of voltage at instants t1, t2, t3 are v1, v2
and v3 respectively. Instantaneous quantities are always
denoted by small letters (v, e, i etc.)

7.2.2 Cycle
A Cycle is a portion of a waveform, which when repeated
makes up the entire waveform. In the figure below, the
shaded portion is the only unique part of the entire
waveform, rest of the waveform is just repetitions of this
portion. A more formal definition would be: an alternating
quantity is said to have completed a cycle when it goes
through the entire range of positive and negative
instantaneous values without reoccurrence. Obviously it
goes without mentioning that the concept of a cycle is only
relevant to periodic waveforms like the sine waveform. Do

86
note that a cycle needn’t start from zero value and end at
zero value. It’s only for convenience. For example, Vmax to
the next Vmax is also a cycle.

7.2.3 Time Period

The time period is the time taken by an alternating quantity
to complete one cycle. In other words, a cycle of an
alternating quantity repeats after every T seconds, where T
denotes the Time period.
 

7.2.4 Frequency
The number of cycles completed by an alternating quantity
in a second is known as its frequency. It’s measured in
cycles per second or Hertz. So a 60 Hz supply means that
the waveform complete 60 cycles in a second. It is denoted
by f. Did you notice something interesting?? The definitions
for Frequency and Time Period were kind of the reverse of
each other. One is the time taken for a cycle and other is the
number of cycles per time. That’s because Frequency and
Time Period are inversely related quantities i.e.

87
 
So as the frequency increases, time period decreases and
vice versa.
 

7.2.5 Amplitude
Amplitude is the maximum value (positive or negative)
attained by an alternating quantity during its cycle.

88
 

7.3 EQUATION
 
Now that you have a basic idea about alternating quantities,
let’s talk math. The general equation for an AC sinusoidal
voltage is:

 
This equation can be understood better, if we take a look at
the working of a generator.

89
 
Inside a generator a coil is made to rotate with the help of
external forces like water or steam or other form of energy.
As the coil moves within a magnetic field, voltage is induced
in the coil, this is the basic working. The voltage induced is a
function of the sine of the angle (ϴ) the coil makes with the
center line. When the coil is along the center line, no
voltage is induced and when the coil is at 90 degrees to the
center line, max voltage is induced. It is better to represent
the voltage as a function of time instead of the physical
angle of the coil, so the term ?? t is used. It is usually
measured in radians.
Going back to the general equation, v represents the
instantaneous value of the voltage and Vmax represents the
amplitude of the voltage waveform.
 

7.4 AVERAGE VALUE

 

90
Average value is a pretty common and useful concept in
technical fields, yet its meaning is often misunderstood.
Imagine sand piled up in the form of a mountain over a
certain distance, then the average value is that height
obtained if the same distance is maintained while the sand
is leveled off.

 
From observation itself, it is pretty clear that the average
value of the sine waveform over a full cycle is zero. So for
symmetrical waveforms such as the sine waveform, the
average value is calculated over a half cycle rather the full
cycle.
 

91
  

7.5 RMS VALUE

 
For a long time, AC was thought to be a useless form of
electricity, primarily because its average value is zero over
the full cycle, but experiments showed otherwise. When an
AC current is passed through a wire, the wire gradually
heated up, showing that power is being delivered. How is
that possible?? It’s possible because both Voltage and
Current are changing direction simultaneously and power
being the product of these 2 quantities, power is always
delivered. Consider this ridiculous example, say someone
punched in your face, then he decides to you punch on the
back of your head, but if you turn around at the exact
moment, you’ll once again be punched in the face. So as
long as both you and the attacker moves simultaneously, all
the punches are delivered at the same place, your face
(Ouchh!). Similarly as long as both current and voltage have
same direction, their product is always positive, hence the
power is always delivered.
 
The electrons are forced to switch direction ever so quickly
that they practically remain still and yet power is being

92
delivered by them. Getting an intuitive feel of how AC power
is delivered is not the easiest of tasks, but a water analogy
might help. When you throw a rock into a pond, the ripples
formed will travel throughout the pond causing leaves and
other debris to oscillate on the water’s surface. This means
that energy has been transferred from the rock to the
floating leaves, even though no single water molecule has
actually travelled all the way from the rock’s impact point to
the floating debris. The energy is carried by the waves
formed on the water’s surface, in which chains of water
molecules push and pull on each other in succession,
transferring energy without actually moving anyone around.
 
By now it should be pretty clear that average value is not
the most effective parameter to measure AC. So we need a
better parameter to quantity AC, it is called the RMS or Root
Mean Square value. It is developed by comparing the
heating effect caused by DC and AC sources. The RMS
value of AC current is the magnitude of DC current
which need to be passed through a resistor, so as to
produce same heat as the AC, for the same duration
of time. Say we pass an AC current through a resistor for 1
minute and measure its temperature and it’s found to be
say 100°C. Now if we connect a DC source to the same
resistor for the same duration of 1 minute and the
temperature is raised to 100°C. Then, that value of DC
current gives the RMS value of the AC current.
 

93
Hence the RMS value of AC is 1/ or 0.707 times the
maximum value. When you measure the voltage of your
power socket, the reading indicates the RMS value. Unless
specifically mentioned, all values related to AC voltages and
currents are RMS values.
 

7.6 PHASE
 
In our general equation, we have only considered sinusoids
having zero value at ?? t =0, and maximum value at ?? t =
, . But this needn’t be the case always, sinusoids can
be shifted to the left or the right as shown below.

94
  
The waveforms are identical in all aspects, but the second
waveform starts earlier than the first, and the third
waveform has a delayed start than the first. In other words,
the second wave leads the first wave and the third wave
lags the first. The lead or lag of a waveform is denoted by ϕ
known as the phase angle.
Considering this concept of phase angle, we can modify the
general equation for an AC sinusoidal voltage as,

95
 
The difference between phase angles of 2 sinusoids is called
the phase difference.
 

7.7 COMPLEX NUMBERS

 
DC circuit analysis we did so far were pretty easy, because
voltages and currents could be added or subtracted directly,
but now that we introduced the demon called phase, things
are about to get a little trickier. To tackle this problem, we
need the help of a mathematical tool called complex
numbers.
Complex numbers can be represented in 2 forms:
1. Rectangular Form: It’s the most commonly used
representation for complex numbers. Note that in
electrical engineering, letter j is used to denote the
imaginary part, instead of i, to not get mixed up with
symbol for current.

96
  
2. Polar Form: In polar form, a quantity is denoted in terms
of its magnitude and the angle it makes with the
positive x-axis.

97
 
Converting between the two forms is very easy and will
come in handy later.

7.8 OPERATIONS USING

COMPLEX NUMBERS
 

7.8.1 Addition/Subtraction:
Complex Addition/ Subtraction is as easy as they some. To
add two complex number’s, simply add the real and
imaginary parts separately. Similarly, to subtract two
complex number’s, simply subtract the real and imaginary
parts separately.

98
 

7.8.2 Multiplication:
To multiply two Complex numbers in rectangular form, each
term of the first complex number is multiplied separately by
each term of the second complex number. Then the real
parts and the imaginary parts are separated out to obtain
the product complex number.

 
Complex multiplication is a lot easier in polar form, the
magnitudes are multiplied and the angles added
algebraically.

99
  

7.8.2 Division:
In rectangular form, Complex multiplication is done by
multiplying both the numerator and denominator with the
denominator of the denominator and separating out the real
and imaginary parts.

 
In polar form, the magnitudes of the numerator is divided by
the magnitude or the denominator and the angle is
subtracted from the other.

 
In the next chapter, we’ll put all that we learnt in this
chapter in understanding AC circuit further.

100
 8. AC CIRCUITS
 

8.1 AC THROUGH RESISTANCE

 
Before we delve into the deep end, we will study the
behavior of AC when passed through our amazing trio of
resistors, capacitors, and inductors and build from there.
Resistance is the easiest component to analyze in AC
circuits, because it behaves the same way for DC as well as
AC.
Consider the circuit shown below, where an AC voltage v =
Vm sin ( t) is applied across a resistor R.

Obviously a current will flow through the circuit, which as

per the ohms law is given by,

101
  
If you compare this equation with the equation for the
applied voltage, you can identify that the current and
applied voltage are in phase (phase shift ϕ = 0) and also the
maximum values are related as, Im = Vm/R. Both the current
and the voltage waveforms are exactly the same and only
difference is that the voltage waveform is R times bigger
than the current waveform, as shown below.
 

8.2 AC THROUGH INDUCTOR

 
We have learnt that, an inductor is a component that resists
change in current, due to its self-inductance property. When
an Inductor is connected to an AC source, the current will
repeatedly change in the magnitude and direction. The

102
inductor will try to oppose this change by inducing a voltage
across it, which limits the current in the circuit. This
opposition due to the inductance is called inductive
reactance. Inductive reactance is denoted by the symbol XL
and is measured in ohms.
Inductive reactance is dependent on the frequency of the
applied AC voltage, as given by the relation,

 
As the frequency of the applied voltage increases, the
Inductive reactance increases and hence the voltage drop
across it also increases. The inductor can be thought of as a
variable resistor, whose opposition to the current is
controlled by the frequency of the supply voltage.
Consider an AC voltage applied to a pure inductor (the coil
offers no resistance) of inductance L, as shown in the circuit
below.

 
The current flowing through the circuit can be calculated as
follows:

103
 
This derivation itself isn’t very important, but what is
important are these conclusions than can be made from it.
1. Comparing the equation with that of supply voltage, it
is obvious that the current has a phase angle of - or
-90 i.e.the current lags the applied voltage by
or 90 .
 
2. The maximum magnitude of current is related to the
maximum magnitude of the applied voltage as,

104
 

8.3 AC THROUGH CAPACITOR

 
When an AC voltage is applied to a capacitor, a voltage is
developed across its plates, as the electrostatic charge is
built up. This impressed voltage opposes the applied voltage
and limits the flow of current in the circuit. This opposition
caused by capacitance is called capacitive reactance (XC)
and is measured in ohms. It is similar to Inductive reactance
in a lot of ways, but the key difference is that the capacitive
reactance opposes the change in voltage, whereas the
inductive reactance opposes the change in current caused
as a result of the applied voltage.
Capacitive reactance is also frequency dependent, as given
by the relation,

105
  
Obviously as you can see, unlike inductive reactance, the
capacitive reactance is inversely proportional to the
frequency of the supply voltage. Why it is so, is beyond the
scope of this book. Think of it this way, as voltage changes
faster, lesser the time for charge to accumulate, hence
lesser capacitive reactance.

 
The current flowing in the circuit, shown above can be
determined as follows:

106
  
Again this derivation itself isn’t very important, but some
inferences can be made from it.
1. Comparing the equation with that of supply voltage, it
is obvious that the current has a phase angle of or
90 i.e.the current leads the applied voltage by
or 90 .
 
2. The maximum magnitude of current is related to the
maximum magnitude of the applied voltage as,
 

107
 

8.4 IMPEDANCE
 
Impedance is defined as the opposition to the flow of
alternating current in a circuit. As we have seen, in a pure
inductive circuit, the opposition was the inductive
reactance, in a pure capacitive circuit, it was the capacitive
reactance and in a resistive circuit it was the resistance.
Similarly, in a circuit with one or more of these elements, in
any combination, the impedance is the total current limiting
element in the circuit. It is denoted by Z and its unit is
obviously Ohm.
As seen in the previous sections, the Inductive reactance
introduces a phase shift of -90 to the current and
capacitive reactance introduces a phase shift of +90 to the
current. Whereas the resistance doesn’t cause any phase
shift. Hence the inductive part of the circuit leads the
resistive part of the circuit by 90 and similarly, the
capacitive part of the circuit lags the resistive part of the
circuit by 90 . For this reason, Impedance is a complex
quantity that has a magnitude and a phase.

108
Here’s an example of a phasor diagram for a circuit
containing all these elements.

 
XL and XC lie on the Imaginary axis of the complex plane.
Therefore to represent them, XL is multiplied by j and XC
is multiplied –j. Here are some examples on how to
calculate Impedance of a circuit.
 

109
 
By the way, impedances in series/parallel are calculated in
the same way as resistances in series/parallel.

 
Here are some more examples:

110
  

8.5 POWER & POWER FACTOR

 
As mentioned earlier in the book, electrical power is the
product of voltage and current. But how does this translate
to AC circuits, where both voltage and current both vary
sinusoidally? Does the power also vary?

111
  
The term cos(ϕ) is called the Power factor of the circuit.
 
Resistive circuit:
In the earlier section we saw that in a purely resistive
circuit, the voltage and the current are in phase. In the first
half cycle, both voltage and current are positive, therefore
power is the product of these two quantities is also positive
in the first half cycle. Similarly, in the second half cycle,
both the voltage and current are negative, therefore the
power is positive in this half cycle too. Hence the average
power is always positive in a pure resistive circuit. In a
purely resistive circuit, phase difference is zero, hence the
power factor is equal to 1.

112
 
Inductive circuit:
In a purely inductive circuit, the current lags the voltage by
90 . Therefore the power factor is zero and consequently
the average power is also zero.

113
  
In the interval A, both the voltage and current are positive,
therefore the power is also positive. During this interval, the
power is absorbed by the inductor to set up a magnetic
field. In the interval B, the current is positive, but the
voltage is negative, therefore the power is negative.
Negative power means the power is being returned back to
the source, as the magnetic field collapses. This process
continues for the next 2 intervals C and D as well. So it is
very evident that over a full cycle, the average power
absorbed by the inductor is zero.
To sum up, a pure inductor doesn’t dissipate energy like a
resistor, it only stores energy in the form of magnetic field
for a while, then releases it back.
 
Capacitive circuit:

114
In a purely capacitive circuit, the current leads the voltage
by 90 . Therefore, similar to a purely inductive circuit, here
too the power factor and the average power are zero.

 
In the interval A, both the voltage and current are positive,
therefore the power is also positive. During this interval, the
power is absorbed by the capacitor to build up charge and
increase electrostatic energy. In the interval B, the voltage is
positive, but the current is negative, therefore the power is
negative. Now the capacitor starts discharging and the
returns gathered electrostatic energy back to the source.
This process continues for the next 2 intervals C and D as
well. So over the full cycle, the average power absorbed by
the capacitor is zero.
By now, you may have figured out that, resistor is the only
component that absorbs and dissipates energy, whereas
inductors and capacitors can only store energy for a while.
 

115
Returning to our earlier discussion, the power factor of a
circuit tells us the amount of resistance contributing to the
total impedance of the circuit. Mathematically,

 
To sum up, the Electrical power in an AC circuit, depends on
three factors: Voltage, Current and the Power factor.
 

8.6 SERIES R-L CIRCUIT

 
Before we close out this chapter, we’ll take a look at few
circuits with combinations of these components and their
response to AC, to solidify what we’ve learnt so far.
First stop is the RL series circuit, shown below.

 
Since you are more or less familiar with complex number
math at this stage, we’ll go that route. The total impedance

116
of this circuit is Z = 5 +j7 (Always remember to multiply XL
by j) and the current and the power factor can be calculated
as,

 
Generally, in an RL series circuit, the current lags the
applied voltage by an angle less than 90 . If the resistance
is very high compared to inductive reactance, then the
phase difference will be closer to zero and if resistance is

117
negligible, then the phase difference will be close to 90 In
our example, the current lags the voltage by 54.54 .
 

8.7 SERIES R-C CIRCUIT

 
Consider the example of an RC series circuit shown below.

 
The total impedance of this circuit is Z = 2 -j4 (Always
remember to multiply XC by -j) and the current and the
power factor can be calculated as,

118
  

 
Generally, in an RC series circuit, the current leads the
applied voltage by an angle less than 90 . If the resistance
is very high compared to capacitive reactance, then the
phase difference will be closer to zero and if resistance is
negligible, then the phase difference will be close to 90 In
this example, the current leads the voltage by 63.89 .
 

8.8 SERIES RLC CIRCUIT

 

119
 
The total impedance of the RLC circuit shown above is Z =
2-j. Hence the power and the power factor can be calculated
as:

120
  
In the RLC circuit, the Inductive reactance and the
Capacitive reactance oppose each other. In our example,
the capacitive reactance is more than the inductive
reactance, hence the current leads the voltage by an angle.
At a certain frequency called the resonance frequency, the
inductive reactance and the capacitive reactance become
equal. Then the circuit becomes a purely resistive circuit
with capacitor-inductor combination acting as a short. At
resonance frequency, the capacitor and the inductor
exchanges energy back and forth, without effect the rest of
the circuit.
 

121
 9. ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
(FOR AC)
 

9.1 VOLTAGE DIVIDER RULE

 
A lot of the laws and theorems used in this chapter and the
next chapter are very similar to what we learnt for DC
circuits, but there are some differences as well. So we’ll go
through each of these with the help of examples, rather
than repeating the theory. This way you can get better at
handling complex number math.
In a series AC circuit, the voltage will be divided amongst
the components according to their impedance values, and
to find the exact values, we need to use the Voltage divider
rule. Consider the RL series circuit shown below. In this
circuit the voltage applied by the source is divided amongst
the resistor R and an inductor L. The resistor offers an
impedance Z1 = R, and the inductor L offers an impedance
of Z2 = jXL (in rectangular form), where XL = ?? L.

122
 
In general the Voltage divider rule for AC circuits is,

 
Were x is the component whose voltage we want to find out.
 

9.2 CURRENT DIVIDER RULE

 
As you already know, the current divider rule is to find the
Current division between components in a parallel circuit.

123
This time we’ll use a parallel RL circuit example to derive
the result.

 
In general the Current divider rule for AC is,

9.3 SOURCE CONVERSION

 
Just like DC sources, AC voltage sources and AC current
sources can also be converted to one another. The process

124
is the same, only difference is that we need to use phasors
in this case.

9.4 MESH ANALYSIS

 
Like we mentioned before, most of these techniques and
theorems are same as for DC and only different in math
part, so will go through examples for each of them than
repeat the theory. Consider the following example:

125
  
It’s easy to see that there are 3 loops or meshes in the
circuit. Let’s assign a mesh current to each of them and
obtain 3 mesh equations using KVL.

126
  
Notice how there is a polarity given to the voltage source.
Well, technically AC doesn’t have a direction, we know that,
but for analysis a direction, which denotes to the direction in
the positive half cycle, is often given.

127
  
In mesh 1, current I1 passes through all the components and
current I2 passes through the inductor 4j, and because I2 is
in opposite direction to I1, the voltage 4jI2 has to be
subtracted from the equation. Similarly currents I1 and I3 has
to be considered in mesh 2 along with its mesh current I2.
Also the current direction we assumed is entering into the
positive terminal of the voltage source, hence the negative
sign for the voltage source in the equation. Mesh 3 equation
is easy because it has a current source, all we need to do is
equate I3 to it (they are in opposite direction though).
It is not necessary to assume mesh currents in clockwise
direction, it can be chosen as per your wish, only thing is the
equation should be formed accordingly, the results will be
the same.
Now the equations can be solved easily using the Cramer’s
rule, to find the currents.

128
  
Do note that this circuit can be solved in multiple ways, for
instance, converting the current source and the 6 resistor
to a voltage source, would reduce the circuit to a 2 meshes,
which is significantly easier to solve (Sorry it’s better to
learn the hard way).Concepts like Super Mesh analysis are
applicable for AC too.
 

9.5 NODAL ANALYSIS

 
Now let’s try to solve this circuit using nodal analysis, the
procedure is same as with DC.

129
 
The first step is to identify the nodes and to select a
reference node (Remember that node is a point where 2 or
more components meet).

 
Unlike our last example, the impedance values are not in
the complex form, so we to convert them before proceeding
further. It’s simple, just add j before inductive impedance
and add –j before capacitive impedance and leave
resistance as such. Then assign voltages to the nodes and
use KCL to form equations for each node.
 

130
 
When forming the equations, assume that all currents flow
away from the node. After the equations are obtained,
proceed as we did in the last example using the crammers
rule.
 

131
 10. NETWORK THEOREMS
(FOR AC)
 

10.1 SUPERPOSITION THEOREM

 
If you recall correctly, we used the superposition theorem to
convert circuits with multiple sources into circuits with
single sources. Here too we are doing the same, we are
eliminating the other sources in the circuit and analyzing
the circuit and repeating the same for the other sources and
finally adding up the results.
Consider this example, it has two voltage sources and
suppose we are required to find the current through
inductor.

 
This is an ideal situation to use the superposition theorem,
even though this circuit can be solved in plenty ways,
including the techniques we learnt so far and the one’s we
are going to. The first task while using the superposition
theorem is to remove the energy sources than the one
under consideration. This can be done by shorting the

132
voltage sources and opening the current sources. In this
example, we can obtain 2 circuits, as there are 2 sources.
For a while let’s consider only the 10 0 V source and we get
this circuit.

 
Let’s use mesh analysis to solve this circuit.

 
Solving the equations we get, I1 = 0.29-j0.25 and I2 =0.24 +
j0.68. Therefore,

 
Now let’s shift our focus to the second voltage source.

133
  
To solve this circuit, let’s use ohm’s law and KVL.

 
Now that we have analyzed the circuits separately, let’s
combine the results. So the current through the inductor is,

134
 
The superposition theorem may seem a little complex
and cumbersome, and that’s probably true, but
nonetheless it’s a handy tool to use in analyzing
certain types of circuits.
 

10.2 THEVENIN THEOREM

 
Thevenin’s theorem states that, any two-terminal, ac
network can be replaced by an equivalent circuit
consisting of a voltage source and a series
impedance. This is essentially the same as Thevenin’s
theorem for DC, except that we use Thevenin impedance
here.
 
Consider the circuit shown below, now let’s try to find the
current through the 4 Ω resistor. The steps are the same as
for DC, but we’ll go through them once again.

135
1. Identify the part of the circuit whose equivalent you
need to find and then temporarily open circuit the load
impedance (4 Ω resistor in our case).

 
2. To find the Thevenin equivalent Impedance (ZTH),
remove all the energy sources in the circuit. This can be
done by short circuiting the voltage sources and open
circuiting the current sources.

 
3. Now the equivalent impedance between the terminals
will give us the Thevenin equivalent impedance. Here

136
 the inductor and the capacitor are in parallel, therefore
ZTH =(j8)(-j2)/(j6) = -2.67j
 
4. To find the Thevenin equivalent voltage (Vth), energy
sources are returned to their original position and then
the open circuit voltage across the terminals is
determined (Vth = -3.33V).
 
5. Finally put the resistor back in its place and we are
ready to draw the equivalent circuit.

 
Finding the current through the resistor in this circuit is now
a piece of cake (I = -0.57 – j0.38 A).
 

10.3 NORTON’S THEOREM

 
Norton’s equivalent circuit is essentially the source
transformed version of the Thevenin’s equivalent circuit.
Using Thevenin’s theorem, we could replace a complex
portion of a circuit by a voltage source in series with an
equivalent impedance, whereas using Norton’s theorem, we

137
could replace the circuit by a current source in parallel with
an equivalent impedance.
Let’s use the Norton’s theorem on our last example and spot
the similarities between the two theorems.
1. Repeat all the steps and find Zth. Norton’s equivalent
impedance is same as the Thevenin’s equivalent
impedance.
2. To find the Norton equivalent current (IN), energy
sources are returned to their original position and then
the closed circuit current through terminals is
determined.

 
When the load is shorted, the capacitor is also shorted
out. Hence the Norton equivalent current is given by IN
= 10/j8 = -1.25j
 
3. Finally put the resistor back in its place and we are
ready to draw the equivalent circuit.

138
 
The current through the resistor can be found using the
Current division rule. I = (-1.25j)(-2.67j)/(4-2.67j) =-0.57-
j0.38 A, which is exactly the value we obtained using the
Thevenin’s theorem.
 

10.4 MAXIMUM POWER

TRANSFER THEOREM
 
All the theorems stated so far were pretty much the same
as for DC, but this theorem is slightly different, the idea is
the same, the math part is significantly different.
 
Maximum Power Transfer Theorem for AC states that,
maximum power will be delivered to a load when the
load impedance is the conjugate of the Thevenin
impedance across its terminals. The statement is all
sorts of confusing, where did the conjugate term come
from? Let’s try to prove this theorem our self to get a better
understanding.
Suppose we reduced a random circuit to its Thevenin’s
equivalent and connected a load impedance across it, we

139
get a circuit like this.

 
The current through this circuit will be,

 
Hence the power delivered to the load impedance is given
by,

 
Notice how there is only RL term in the numerator and the XL
term is missing, that’s because the reactive part of the
impedance doesn’t consume any power over the full cycle.
To get the condition for max power, we need to differentiate
the PL with respect to XL (I’m not going to, but you should)
and equate it to zero. Then we get the condition XTH + XL =0

140
i.e. XL = - XTH. Substituting this relation in the power
equation, we obtain a simpler expression.

 
To get the next condition for maximum power transfer,
differentiate the PL once again, this time with respect to RL
and equate it to zero, it’s much easier this time. This time
we get the condition RL + RTH = 2RL i.e. RL = RTH.
So the two conditions for Maximum power transfer in AC
circuits is,

 
To sum up, maximum power can be transferred from source
to the load in an AC circuit, if the resistive part of the source
and the load are the same and the reactive parts cancel
each other out.
 

141
 11. LAPLACE TRANSFORM
 

11.1 INTRODUCTION
 
So far we dealt with DC circuits and sinusoidal AC circuits in
steady state (more on this in the next chapter). But in most
real life circuits, the sources may not always be sinusoidal
and quantities of interest in these circuits may be in
transient state etc. So the math we used so far will prove
inadequate to deal with these circuits. The way to deal with
such circuits is to model them with the help of differential
equations.
Perhaps an example will make things more clear.

 
Consider this simple RLC circuit with a voltage source vs(t)
and suppose the current through the circuit is the quantity
of our interest. Using KVL, vs(t) = vR + vL + vC. The voltage
across each components can be replaced by the relations

142
shown in the table below (memorize this table). This is done
to make each term a function of current i(t), which is
common to all components, as this is a series circuit.
 

 
Now the KVL equation becomes:

 
This is the differential equation for this particular circuit.
There are lots of advantages to modelling circuits this way.
For one, this equation is a general one, it is applicable to
any kind of source voltage, DC or sinusoidal AC or any other
waveform. Also a lot of inferences can be made just from
the nature of the differential equation. For instance, the
equation in our example is a second order differential

143
equation and that is enough information to predict the
general behavior of this circuit to various inputs.
The only problem with this method is that, solving
differential equations isn’t the easiest of tasks and not
everyone’s an expert in calculus. But luckily there’s an
easier way to solve differential equations, using Laplace
transform.
 

11.2 LAPLACE TRANSFORM

 
The Laplace transform is a well-established
mathematical technique for solving differential
equations. It is named in honor of the great French
mathematician, Pierre Simon De Laplace. Like all
transforms, the Laplace transform changes a
mathematical function into another according to
some fixed set of rules or equations.
Before we dig into Laplace transform, let’s look into
transforms in general. So what is a transform? Why
do we need them?
Let’s begin by considering a simple computational
problem: compute the value of x = 3.42.4 . It is not
easy to get the exact value using straightforward
methods. What we can do to make this problem
solvable is to take natural log on both sides: now the
equation becomes ln(x) = 2.4 ln (3.4). Now the
value of ln(x) can be easily obtained from a log table.
And to obtain the value of x, all we have to do is to
take the antilog of the value obtained. What we did
was to take the hard problem, convert it into an

144
easier equivalent problem. This is the very idea
behind transforms. The concept of transformation can
be illustrated with the simple diagram below:
 

 
What kind of transformation might we use with
ODEs? Based on our experience with logarithms, the
dream would be a transformation, it would be useful
if some transformation allowed us to replace the
operation of differentiation by some easier operation,
perhaps something similar to multiplication. This is
exactly what the Laplace transform is used for. The
Laplace transform, transforms the differential
equations into algebraic equations which are easier
to manipulate and solve. Once the solution in the
Laplace transform domain is obtained, the inverse
Laplace transform is used to obtain the solution to
the differential equation.

145
 
The Laplace transform of a function f(t), denoted as
F(s), is defined as:

 
This equation looks menacing at first glance. But
fortunately, most times you don’t need to use this
equation, you can easily get away with knowing some
standard results and some properties.
 

11.3 PROPERTIES OF LAPLACE

TRANSFORM
 
Some of the basic properties of Laplace transform are listed
here,
 

146
  

11.4 STANDARD LAPLACE

TRANSFORM PAIRS
 

147
148
 

11.5 INVERSE LAPLACE

TRANSFORM
 
Finding the Inverse Laplace transforms of functions isn’t
terribly difficult. Most times Inverse Laplace transforms of
functions can be figured out by inspection. The general
method to find the Inverse Laplace transforms of functions
is to express them as partial fractions and then make it into
a convenient form and figure out which function’s Laplace
each term is. Keeping the various properties of Laplace
transform is very handy.
Here are some examples on finding Laplace Inverse: Link
 

11.6 SOLVING DIFFERENTIAL

EQUATIONS
 
We started with Laplace transform as an easier method to
solve differential equations. The procedure is best illustrated
with an example.
 
Example:

f ’’(t) + 3 f’(t) + 2 f(t) = e-t, with the initial

conditions f(0) = f’(0) =0

149
  
At first glance, this may not seem any better than
differential equations, but trust us, using Laplace transform
is very easy with some practice. Here are more examples to
practice: Link
 

11.7 MODELLING CIRCUITS IN S-

DOMAIN
 
Once you gain enough confidence with Laplace transform,
you don’t have to find the differential equations for the
circuits, then convert it into Laplace transform. Instead you
can form algebraic equations in the Laplace domain or the
s-domain, directly by inspection.
Voltage or current in an element in the circuit can be
represented as given in the table below. These are just the
Laplace transforms of the relations from the earlier table.

150
With the differentiation and integration gone, the relations
look easier already. We have ignored the initial states of the
components in these relations (That’s for the next chapter).
 

 
Now we’ll try to model a circuit in the Laplace domain
directly. What better than our circuit from earlier, to try this
out.

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Modelling circuits in the s-domain has lots of advantages,
it’s easier to study stability, natural response, frequency
response etc., but that’s more of a control systems terro and
we are not going into it. You can check out our control
systems book if you are interested: Control Systems for
Complete Idiots
 

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 12. TRANSIENT ANALYSIS
 

12.1 INTRODUCTION
 
A circuit whose circuit parameters or conditions remain
constant, is said to be in a steady state. But a circuit isn’t
always in steady state, when a circuit or a portion of the
circuit is switched on or off, there is a sudden change in
circuit parameters (like amplitude, frequency etc.). A certain
amount of time is taken for these changes to take place, this
duration is called the Transient period and this phenomenon
is known as Transient. Once the transient period is over, the
circuit settles down and attains the steady state, if not
disturbed further.
So when you switch on a circuit, there are 2 responses; one
is the transient response or the natural response and the
other is the steady state response or the forced response.
All the circuit analysis we did till now was to find the steady
state response, we ignored the transient response.
Transients are due to the presence of energy storing
elements (Capacitors and Inductors) in a circuit. These
elements don’t respond instantly to change in circuit
conditions.
 

12.2 TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF

AN RL CIRCUIT TO DC
EXCITATION
 

153
Consider this initially uncharged inductor in series with a
resistor. At t=0, the switch S is closed. Being an initially
uncharged inductor, the current before the instant of
closing, i(0-) is zero. But as the inductor cannot quickly
respond to the change in current, the current at the instant
right after the closing of the switch, i(0+) is also zero i.e.

 
Then the current that flows through the circuit can be found
using differential equation. Using KVL,

 
This is a simple first order differential equation and can be
solved easily, but we’ll go with the Laplace transform
approach. Do not forget to include the initial value terms in
the Laplace transform of the differential.

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The equation just validates our discussion, that circuits have
2 responses, steady state and transient. As t increases the
transient response term decreases exponentially and
nullifies, leaving only the steady state response. If you go by
the methods used prior to this chapter, current value by
ohms law will give the result I = V/R, which is our steady
state response.
The graph of the current response of this circuit will look like
this:

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The constant τ = L/R is called the time constant of the
circuit. This value decides how fast this circuit will reach
steady state. Typically current will reach steady state after t
= 5τ. The important thing to note is that after the brief
transient period, Inductor acts as a short circuit (just like a
normal wire) in a DC circuit.
 

12.3 TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF

AN RC CIRCUIT TO DC
EXCITATION
 
This time consider an initially uncharged capacitor in series
with a resistor. At t=0, the switch S is closed. As the
capacitor cannot quickly respond to the change in voltage,
the voltage before and right after the closing of the switch
are the same i.e.

156
 

157
 
This is the generalized expression for vC(t) and the
corresponding graph looks like:

158
The constant τ= RC is the time constant of this circuit. In a
DC circuit, the capacitor acts as an open circuit in the
steady state.
 

12.4 EXAMPLE
 
Using a similar approach like in the last two cases, we can
obtain the general response for any circuit.
Consider this example, say the switch has been in position 1
for a long time and then it’s moved to position 2 at t=0 and
we are required to find the voltage across the capacitor.

159
Since the switch has been in position 1 for a long time it’s in
the steady state, hence the initial voltage across the
capacitor will be equal to the applied voltage.

160
Similarly, the general response for any type of circuits
including AC circuits can be found.

161
 13. 3-PHASE SYSTEMS
 

13.1 INTRODUCTION
 
There are 2 popular kinds of electrical systems, Single phase
and Three phase. In a single phase system, there will be live
wire and a neutral return path for the current to flow. In a
three phase system, there will be 3 live wires and a common
neutral return path for the current. There are several
advantages to having 3 phase system over single phase;
more power can be delivered, cheaper to generate, transmit
etc.

162
  
Three phase voltage is generated with the help of 3 coils
separated by 120 inside a generator. Due to this
arrangement, the voltage induced on each coil will lag the
other by 120 . Mathematically,

163
13.2 STAR CONNECTION
 
In a single phase connection, 2 wires are sufficient for
transmitting power to the load. But in a 3 phase connection,
6 terminals (2 ends of each phase) are available to supply
power to the loads. Using these 6 terminals individually, like
in single phase connection will prove expensive and
unnecessary. There are 2 better ways to connect three
phase terminals to deliver power to the loads.
First is the Star or the Wye Connection. In such a
connection, one terminal of each coil is terminated at a
common point called the neutral. Loads can be connected
either between the phases or between the phase and the
neutral.

164
 

13.3 DELTA CONNECTION

 
Another possible way to connect coils is the Delta
Connection. In such a connection, the ending terminal of a
coil is connected to the starting terminal of the other coil, so
as to form a closed loop as shown below. In delta connection
there is no common neutral point, so the only way to
connect load is between the phases.

165
 

13.4 LINE & PHASE VOLTAGE

 
While studying 3ϕ circuits, two types of voltages can be
defined; line voltage and phase voltage (this applies for
both connections). The potential difference or voltage
between any two phases is defined as the line voltage. It is
denoted as VL. And the potential difference between any
one phase and neutral is called phase voltage. It is denoted
as Vph.
In a delta connection, there is no neutral point, hence the
line voltage and the phase voltage are the same. But in star
connection, these are two different quantities, whose
relation can be derived as follows:

166
Point to note is that, in a delta connection, the line voltage
is higher than the phase voltage.

13.5 LINE & PHASE CURRENT

Similar to voltage, current can also be defined in 2 ways in a
3ϕ circuit. Current flowing through the coil (or the load) is
called as the phase current (Iph) and current flowing through
any line is called line current (IL).
In a star connection, the line current and the phase current
are one and the same. But in delta connection, these are
two different quantities, whose relation can be derived as
follows:

167
Thus in a delta connection, the line current is higher than
phase current.

13.6 LOAD CONNECTIONS

Loads can also be connected in several ways in a 3ϕ system
as shown below (there are still more connections). The
appropriate connection is chosen according the voltage and
the current requirements of the load. Each connection has
certain advantages and disadvantages.

168
If the impedances or the loads are equally distributed
among the 3 phases, such a load is called balanced load.

13.7 POWER
Three phase power in a circuit is given by:

169
These equations are applicable to both star and delta
connections.

170
 REFERENCES
1. Introductory Circuit Analysis by Robert L. Boylestad

2. Engineering Circuit Analysis by Hayt, Kimmerly

3. Delmar's Standard Textbook of Electricity by

Stephen L. Herman

4. Basic AC Circuits by John Clayton Rawlins

5. Discovering the Laplace Transform in

Undergraduate Differential Equations by Terrance
J. Quinn and Sanjay Rai

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