How To Find Current Through A Resistor
Divide the measured voltage drop across the resistor by the resistance in ohms of the resistor to find the current through the resistor.
How to find current through a resistor. Current will flow through the wire on the left cross the left resistor and reach the other end. If there is a voltage v across a resistor r a current i flows through it. Next you need itotal using ohms law v ir. The current that flows through each of the resistors i r1 and i r2 connected together in parallel is not necessarily the same value as it depends upon the resistive value of the resistor.
If a current i should flow through a resistor r the voltage v can be calculated. Measure the voltage over the led and the current going through. Since there is a 2 volt drop. No part of the current doubles back or flows through two parallel resistors.
Enter part 2 answer. To find the resistor value we start with finding the voltage drop over the resistor. First version of the voltage formula. You need to calculate the total resistance if the circuit first to figure out the total current flowing through r1.
R2 and r3 are in parallel so their combined resistance is r2 r3 r2 r3 4 8ohm. Let s say the led needs 15 ma and has a voltage drop of 2 volts. We now use ohm s law to find the voltage v2 across resistor r2. And use the exact same technique.
V2 r2 i2 10 0 8 8 v example 3 in the circuit below resistors r1 and r2 are in parallel and have resistances of 8 ω and 4 ω respectively. Assume a voltage drop of 50 volts across the resistor r1 as an example. You have a 5 v power source that you would like to power it with. For fun i encourage you to figure out what that current is now the current i sub three.
And one thing that you should feel very comfortable of is that this current that is flowing through the first resistor that four ampere current that current gets split between i two and i three. In this example find the current through r1 by dividing 50v by 250 ohms. At the same time current will flow through the wire on the right cross the right resistor and reach the end. Ohm s law can be rewritten in three ways for calculating current resistance and voltage.
Now that value is in series with r1 so rtotal r1 4 8 8 4 8 12 8ohm. The current through each resistor however is different and is inversely proportional to its resistance. In a parallel connection the potential difference across each resistor is the same. V i r.
Which may be applied to the resistor above without causing overheating. Calculate the maximum current a 140 ohms 1 2 watt resistor can have flowing through it safely. I can be calculated. The current passing through r1 is 0 2 a.
Hence the current i2 through r2 is equal to 0 8 a. Which resistor value do you need. But we can keep analyzing it.