ELECTRIC CIRCUITS

25
EXERCISES
Section 25.1 Circuits, Symbols, and Electromotive Force
14. A literal reading of the circuit specifications results in connections like those in sketch (a). Because the connecting
wires are assumed to have no resistance (a real wire is represented by a separate resistor), a topologically
equivalent circuit diagram is shown in sketch (b).

15. INTERPRET This problem is about how various circuit elements can be connected to form a closed series circuit.
DEVELOP In a series circuit, the same current must flow through all elements.
EVALUATE One possibility is shown below. The order of elements and the polarity of the battery connections are
not specified.

ASSESS An important feature about a series circuit is that the current through all the components must be the
same. With two batteries, the direction of the current flow is determined by the polarity of the larger of the two
voltage ratings.
16. The circuit has three parallel branches: one with and in series; one with just and one with the battery
(an ideal emf in series with the internal resistance).

17. INTERPRET This problem explores the connection between the emf of a battery and the energy it delivers.
DEVELOP Electromotive force, or emf, is defined as work per unit charge,
EVALUATE Substituting the values given in the problem statement, we find the emf to be

25.1
25.2 Chapter 25

ASSESS For an ideal battery with zero internal resistance, the emf is equal to the terminal voltage (potential
difference across the battery terminals).
18. The average power, supplied by the battery to the bulb, multiplied by the time equals the energy capacity of the
battery. For an ideal battery, therefore or
19. INTERPRET This problem is about the chemical energy used up in the battery for the work done.
DEVELOP The power delivered by an emf is Therefore, if the voltage and current remain constant, then
the energy converted would be
EVALUATE Substituting the values given, the energy used in

ASSESS The result makes sense; the energy used up is proportional to the current drawn, the emf, and the
duration the headlights were left on.
Section 25.2 Series and Parallel Circuits
20. From Equations 25.1 and 25.3b,
21. INTERPRET This problem is about connecting two resistors in parallel.
DEVELOP The equivalent resistance of two resistors connected in parallel can be found by Equation 25.3a:

The equation allows us to determine when and are known.

EVALUATE The solution for R2 in Equation 25.3a is

ASSESS Our result shows that This is consistent with the fact that the equivalent resistance is
smaller than and
22. The starter circuit contains all the resistances in series, as in Figure 25.10. (We assume includes the resistance
of the cables, connections, etc., as well as that of the motor.) With the defective starter,
so With a good starter,

23. INTERPRET This problem is about the internal resistance of the battery in Exercise 22.
DEVELOP The starter circuit contains all the resistances in series, as in Figure 25.9. (We assume includes the
resistance of the cables, connections, etc., as well as that of the motor.) With the defective starter, the terminal
voltage is

EVALUATE From the equation above, we find the internal resistance to be

ASSESS The terminal voltage is substantially less than the battery’s emf The two are equal
only in the ideal case where the internal resistance vanishes.
24. From the equation for a battery short-circuited, in the subsection “Real Batteries,”
25. INTERPRET In this problem we are asked to find all possible values of equivalent resistance that could be
obtained with three resistors.
DEVELOP Since each resistor can be placed either in parallel or in series, there are eight combinations using all
three resistors.
EVALUATE Let and The possible results are (a) one in series with two in
parallel:
 Electric Circuits 25.3

(b) one in parallel with two in series:

(c) three in series:

(d) three in parallel:

ASSESS The equivalent resistance is a maximum when all three are connected in series, as in (c), and a minimum
when all are connected in parallel, as in (d).
Section 25.3 Kirchoff’s Laws and Multiloop Circuits
26. If the switch is irrelevant, then there is no current through its branch of the circuit. Thus, points A and B must be at
the same potential, and the same current flows through and Kirchhoff’s voltage law applied to the outer loop,
and to the left-hand loop, gives and respectively. Therefore,

27. INTERPRET This problem asks for the currents in a multi-loop circuit.
DEVELOP The general solution of the two loop equations and one node equation given in Example 25.4 can be
found using determinants (or and can be found in terms of as in Example 25.4). The equations and the
solution are:
25.4 Chapter 25

EVALUATE With the particular values of emf’s and resistors in this problem, we have

and the currents are

ASSESS The same results could be obtained by retracing the reasoning of Example 25.4, with
replacing the original value in loop 2. Then, everything is the same until the equation for loop 2:
28. The current is from Ohm’s law. The answer is trivial because the potential
difference across the resistor is evident from the circuit diagram. (However, if the battery had internal
resistance, an argument like that in Example 25.4 must be used.)
29. INTERPRET We find the current through a resisitor in a given circuit, using Kirchhoff’s laws. We will use the
loops and nodes drawn in Example 25.4.
DEVELOP The circuit is given to us in Figure 25.14, with one change: We will use node A and loops 1
and 2. These will give us three equations, which we will use to solve the three unknown currents. At node A,
For loop 1, For loop 2,
EVALUATE We want current so eliminate the other two currents. The node equation gives us
Substitute this into the equation for loop 1 and solve for

Now substitute this value into the equation for loop 2 and solve for

ASSESS The current through resistor is zero! Looking back at the original diagram, we can see that this would
mean that battery 2 is supplying no current and the voltage drops through resistors 1 and 3 equal the voltage
supplied by battery 1. This is a somewhat unexpected solution, but it is consistent.
Section 25.4 Electrical Measurements
30. The voltage across the resistor in Fig. 25.29 is (the circuit is just a voltage
divider as described by Equations 25.2a and 25.2b), as would be measured by an ideal voltmeter with infinite
resistance. With the real voltmeter connected in parallel across the resistor, its effective resistance is
changed to and the voltage reading is only
or about 1.64% lower.
31. INTERPRET This problem is about the measurement error caused by the non-zero resistance of an ammeter.
DEVELOP The current in the circuit of Fig. 25.29 is
 Electric Circuits 25.5

With the ammeter inserted (in series with the resistors), the resistance is increased by
EVALUATE The resulting current after including is

The value is about 0.662% lower than I.

ASSESS The current reading by the ammeter is lower due to its internal resistance.
32. The current through the misconnected ammeter is so the power dissipated in it is
(comparable to a small toaster-oven).
Section 25.5 Capacitors in Circuits
33. INTERPRET In this problem we are asked to show that the quantity RC, the product of resistance and capacitance,
has the units of time.
DEVELOP The SI units for R and C are W and F, respectively. The units can be rewritten as

EVALUATE From the expressions above, the SI units for the time constant, RC, are

as stated.
ASSESS The quantity RC is the characteristic time for changes to occur in an RC circuit.
34. (a) (see Exercise 33), (b) (c)
35. INTERPRET This problem is about the time dependence of the capacitor voltage in a charging RC circuit.
DEVELOP The capacitor voltage as a function of time is given by Equation 25.6:

EVALUATE After five time constants, the equation above gives a voltage of

of the applied voltage.

ASSESS As time goes on and after many more time constants, we find essentially no current flowing to the
capacitor, and the capacitor could be considered as being fully charged for all practical purposes.
36. For the RC circuit described, Equation 25.6 gives the voltage across the capacitor, as a function of time. Thus,
or
37. INTERPRET We find the voltage across a capacitor in a circuit, given that the capacitor is “fully charged.” We
will take this to mean that the current through the capacitor is zero, and use the results of Example 25.7b, with
Ohm’s law, to find the voltage required.
DEVELOP In Figure 25.24a, we see the circuit in question. If the capacitor is fully charged, then no current flows
through it and the circuit is equivalent to the circuit shown in 25.24c. So we find the current through resistor in
Figure 25.24c and then determine the voltage across resistor which is the same as the voltage across the
capacitor.
EVALUATE The current through resistor is given in Example 25.7 as The voltage is given by Ohm’s
law as
ASSESS In the limit of long charging times, this circuit behaves like a voltage divider.
PROBLEMS
38. (a) The resistance between A and B is equivalent to two resistors of value R in series with the parallel combination
of resistors of values R and 2R. Thus, (b) is equivalent to just one
25.6 Chapter 25

resistor of value R in series with the parallel combination of R and 2R (since the resistor at point B carries no
current, i.e., its branch is an open circuit). Thus
39. INTERPRET The problem asks for the current in a resistor which is part of a more complex circuit.
DEVELOP The circuit in Fig. 25.30, with a battery connected across points A and B, is similar to the circuit
analyzed in Example 25.3. In this case, we have one 1.0 W resistor in parallel with two 1.0 W resistors in series:

and the total resistance is The total current (that through the battery) is

EVALUATE The voltage across the parallel combination is

which is the voltage across the vertical resistor. Thus, the current through this resistor is then

ASSESS We have a total of 2.25 A of current flowing around the circuit. At the vertex of the triangular loop, it is
split into and The voltage drop across the vertical resistor is the same
as that going through point C and the two 1.0-W resistors:
40. The circuit diagram is like Fig. 25.9, and the voltage across the load (from Kirchhoff’s voltage law) is
Since (as for a voltage divider). With the given numerical
values,
respectively.
41. INTERPRET The circuit has two batteries connected in series. We apply Kirchhoff’s law to solve for the current
that flows through the discharged battery.
DEVELOP Terminals of like polarity are connected with jumpers of negligible resistance. Kirchhoff’s voltage
law gives

EVALUATE Solving the equation above, we obtain

ASSESS When you try to jump start a car, you connect positive to positive and negative to negative terminals.
The connection is what was illustrated in the figure.

42. The combination must be capable of dissipating of power (when connected

across an ideal battery), so combinations with at least six resistors (capable of dissipating each) must
be considered. In order to get the same total resistance as each individual resistor, n parallel branches of n resistors
in series are needed (or n branches in series of n resistors in parallel), making a total of resistors. The smallest
greater than 6 is for (Alternatively, one could argue that the total current is while
the maximum current in each resistor element is so at least three equal branches in the
circuit are needed.)
43. INTERPRET This problem is about rate of energy dissipation in the resistor.
DEVELOP For a short-circuited battery, the current is so the dissipated power is
 Electric Circuits 25.7

EVALUATE Substituting the values given in the problem, we find the rate of energy dissipation to be

ASSESS With held fixed at 6 V, we see that the power dissipated is inversely proportional to the internal
resistance
44. The circuit breaker is activated if or if The resistance of each light bulb is
and n bulbs in parallel have resistance Therefore implies
so more than 24 bulbs would blow the circuit.
45. INTERPRET The circuit in this problem contains a battery – the emf source, and two resistors in series.
DEVELOP Kirchhoff’s loop law gives or Therefore, the voltage across is

This is the equation we shall use to solve for Once is known, the power dissipated is simply equal to

EVALUATE (a) The equation above gives

(b) The power dissipated is

ASSESS For completeness, let’s calculate the power dissipated in and the total power. The voltage across is
and the power dissipated in is The total power
dissipated in the circuit is

which indeed is equal to the sum of and

46. Resistors of and connected in parallel have a combined resistance of (Equation 25.3b), so
the altered circuit is a voltage divider (Figure 25.4) with and Equation 25.2b gives

47. INTERPRET The circuit in this problem contains a battery—the emf source, and three resistors. We want to
analyze the voltage across the one which is a variable resistor.
DEVELOP The resistors in parallel have an equivalent resistance of The other R, and is a
voltage divider in series with voltage
EVALUATE (a) Using Equation 25.2, we find the voltage across to be

(b) The sketch of as a function of is shown on the right.

(c) If then On the other hand, if then (the value when is removed). If
25.8 Chapter 25

ASSESS The limit corresponds to the situation where the second resistor is shorted out. The limit is
an open circuit with no current going through it.
48. (a) With reference to Problem 49’s solution, the resistance of the three parallel resistors is so the current
supplied by the battery is (b) The voltage drop across the resistors in
parallel is and the current through the resistor is Thus,

49. INTERPRET This problem asks for the power dissipated in a resistor which is part of a more complex circuit.
DEVELOP The three resistors in parallel have an effective resistance of

The equivalent resistance of the circuit is Equation 25.2 gives the voltage across
them as

EVALUATE Thus, the power dissipated in the resistor is

ASSESS With held fixed at 6 V, we see that the power dissipated is inversely proportional to the resistance.

50. If the ammeter has zero resistance, the potential difference across it is zero, or nodes C and D are at equal
potentials. If I is the current through the battery, must go through each of the -resistors connected at node A
(because At node B, the inputs twice the current of the ,
or and respectively (because Therefore must go through the
ammeter from D to C, as required by Kirchhoff’s current law. To find the value of I, note that the upper pair of
resistors are effectively in parallel as is the lower pair. The effective resistance between A and B is
Thus and the ammeter current is

51. INTERPRET The problem asks for the equivalent resistance between two points in a complex circuit.
DEVELOP The equivalent resistance is determined by the current which would flow through a pure emf if it were
connected between A and B: Since I is but one of six branch currents, the direct solution of Kirchhoff’s
circuit laws is tedious determinants). However, because of the special values of the resistors in Fig. 25.34,
a symmetry argument greatly simplifies the calculation.
The equality of the resistors on opposite sides of the square implies that the potential difference between A and C
equals that between D and B, i.e.,
 Electric Circuits 25.9

Equivalently, Since etc., the symmetry argument requires that

both R-resistors on the perimeter carry the same current, and both 2R-resistors carry current Then
Kirchhoff’s current law implies that the current through E is and the current through the central resistor is
(as added to Figure 25.34). Now there are only two independent branch currents, which can be found from
Kirchhoff’s voltage law, applied, for example,

These equations may be rewritten as

with solution and

EVALUATE The sum of the two currents gives which leads to

ASSESS The configuration of resistors in Figure 25.34 is called a Wheatstone bridge.

52. The general solution of the two loop equations and one node equation given in Example 25.4 can be found using
determinants (or and can be found in terms of as in Example 25.4). The equations and the solution are:

With the particular values of emf’s and resistors in this problem, we find currents of
and Or, one could retrace the
reasoning of Example 25.4, with replacing the original value in loop 2. Then, everything is the same until
the equation or and
53. INTERPRET This problem asks for the current in a resistor which is part of a more complex circuit. The solution
requires analyzing a circuit with series and parallel components.
25.10 Chapter 25

DEVELOP Let us choose the positive sense for each of the three branch currents in Figure 25.35 as upward
through their respective emf’s (at least one must be negative, of course), and consider the two smaller loops shown.
Kirchhoff’s circuit laws give:

Solve for and from the loop equations and substitute into the node equation:

The current in is
EVALUATE Solving for we find

A negative current is downward through in Figure 25.35.

ASSESS Substituting into the equations above, we find and One can
readily verify that the solutions satisfy all the equations.
54. Let us choose the positive sense for each of the three branch currents in Figure 25.35 as upward through their
respective emf’s (at least one must be negative, of course), and consider the two smaller loops shown. Kirchhoff’s
circuit laws give:

Solve for and from the loop equations and substitute into the node equation:

Then

with similar expressions for and One can see that is positive if or

55. INTERPRET In this problem the voltage across a given resistor is measured using a voltmeter which behaves like
a resistance.
DEVELOP With a meter of resistance connected as indicated, the circuit reduces to two pairs of parallel
resistors in series. The total resistance is

The voltage reading is

 Electric Circuits 25.11

where (the expression for follows from Equation 25.2, with and as the above pairs, or
from as a fraction of
EVALUATE For the three voltmeters specified, and 2.00 mA, while
and 59.9 V, respectively. (After checking the calculations, round off to two figures.)

ASSESS Of course, 60 V is the ideal voltmeter reading. This reading corresponds to an ideal voltmeter that has
infinite resistance.
56. (a) An ideal voltmeter has infinite resistance, so AB is still an open circuit (as shown on Figure 25.37) when such a
voltmeter is connected. The meter reads the voltage across the resistor (part of a voltage divider), or
(see Equation 25.2a or Equation 25.2b). (b) An ideal ammeter has zero resistance, and
thus measures the current through the points A and B when short-circuited (i.e., no current flows through the
resistor). In Figure 25.37, this would be (Such a connection does not measure the
current in the original circuit, since an ammeter should be connected in series with the current to be measured.)
57. INTERPRET In this problem an ammeter is used to measure the current in a circuit. The ammeter is connected in
series with the resistor.
DEVELOP The internal resistance of an ideal battery is zero, so the resistor has a value of
With the ammeter in place, the current would be

EVALUATE (a) Substituting the values given in the problem statement, we find the current to be

(b) If the resistance of the ammeter were neglected in the calculation, one would obtain

ASSESS This value differs from the actual value of by 0.83%. However, subtraction of is a
correction that could be included easily.
58. (a) Equation 25.6 and the given circuit characteristics imply that the time constant is Therefore,
in three time constants, or 15 ms, the capacitor is charged to of the battery voltage. (b) Evidently,

59. INTERPRET This problem is about a discharging capacitor in an RC circuit, and we want to find the time to reach
a given voltage.
DEVELOP A capacitor discharging through a resistor is described by exponential decay, with time constant RC
(Equation 25.8):

The energy in the capacitor is

EVALUATE (a) The time it takes to reach is

25.12 Chapter 25

(b) Similarly, the time it takes for the energy to decrease to half its initial value is

ASSESS The time constant in this problem is When the voltage is

reduced by a factor of or Therefore, it takes less than one time constant for the value of
to be halved from its initial value.
60. (a) The effective resistance of a circuit that draws 1.2 A from a constant 35 V supply is
(b) To keep the voltage within the prescribed range for the discharging capacitor (Equation 25.8), the time constant
must satisfy or For and one finds
61. INTERPRET This problem involves energy dissipation in an RC circuit. The object of interest is the capacitance.
DEVELOP A capacitor discharging through a resistor is described by exponential decay, with time constant RC
(Equation 25.8):

The energy in the capacitor is

EVALUATE If 2 J is dissipated in time t, the energy stored in the capacitor drops from to
(assuming there are no losses due to radiation, etc.). From the equation above, we find the capacitance to be

ASSESS In this problem the time constant is Therefore, at 8.6 ms (about

the energy decreases by a factor This is precisely what we found.

62. When current stops flowing (at the potential difference across the capacitors is equal, but the total charge is
just the initial charge. Thus, and Since
or The energy stored in the
capacitors is initially and finally
The difference, is dissipated in the resistor (except for a negligible
amount of radiated energy).
63. INTERPRET This problem is about the long-term and short-term values of current and voltage of an RC circuit.
DEVELOP In addition to the explanation in Example 25.7, we note that when the switch is in the closed position,
Kirchhoff’s voltage law applied to the loop containing both resistors yields and to the loop
containing just R2 and C,
EVALUATE (a) If the switch is closed at Example 25.7 shows that and

(b) After a long time, Example 25.7 also shows that

and
(c) Under the conditions stated, the fully charged capacitor simply discharges through R2. (R1 is in
an open-circuit branch, so for the entire discharging process.) The initial discharging current is
 Electric Circuits 25.13

(d) After a very long time, and VC decay exponentially to zero.

ASSESS We deduced the short-term and long-term behavior of the RC circuit without having to solve a
complicated differential equation. A long time after the circuit has been closed, the capacitor becomes fully
charged with no current flowing to it. When the circuit is reopened, the capacitor starts to discharge and eventually
loses all its stored energy.
64. (a) An uncharged capacitor acts instantaneously like a short circuit (see Example 25.7), so initially all of the
current from the battery goes through R1 and C1, and none goes through R2 and R3. Thus, and
(b) A fully charged capacitor acts like an open circuit (when responding to a constant applied
emf), so after a long time all of the current goes through R1 and R2 in series, and none goes through R3.
Thus and (c) One can easily guess that I1 and I2 respectively decrease and
increase monotonically from their initial to their final values, and that first increases from, and then decreases to
zero. (One can use the loop and node equations to solve for the currents. They turn out to be linear combinations of
two decaying exponentials with different time constants.)

65. INTERPRET In this problem we are asked to find the voltage and internal resistance of a battery using the
measured voltage values of two voltmeters.
DEVELOP The internal resistance of the battery and the resistance of the voltmeter are in series with the
battery’s emf, so the current is The potential drop across the meter (its reading) is

From the given data, we can write

or and
EVALUATE Solving the simultaneous equations for and Ri gives

and
ASSESS An ideal voltmeter has infinite resistance. Thus, when we let its reading approaches the battery
voltage
66. Using gives so

67. INTERPRET The electric field at the node increases due to charge accumulation and eventually reaches the
breakdown field strength.
DEVELOP The charge on the node (whether positive or negative) accumulates at a rate of
so (where we assume that If the node is treated approximately
as an isolated sphere, the electric field strength at its surface is

Electric breakdown occurs when

25.14 Chapter 25

EVALUATE The time when the breakdown happens is

ASSESS This problem shows that Kirchhoff’s node law must hold, or else there would be a charge buildup at the
node which quickly leads to an electric breakdown.
68. The current for the connection described is so the power dissipated in the resistor is
This inherently positive function of R is zero for and so it must have a maximum
at some intermediate value of R. The condition for the maximum is which implies
or
69. INTERPRET This problem is about energy stored in the capacitor that’s part of the RC circuit. We are asked to
show that it only stores half the energy the battery supplies.
DEVELOP The power supplied by the battery charging a capacitor (initially uncharged) in an RC circuit is

where the current is given by Equation 25.5: The total energy supplied is

EVALUATE The energy stored in the fully charged capacitor is

Thus, we see that the energy stored in the capacitor is only half of that supplied by the battery.
ASSESS The other half of the energy supplied by the battery is dissipated in the resistor:

70. (a) There are two parallel pairs in series, so (b) Here, there are two series pairs
in parallel, so (c) Symmetry requires that the current divides equally on the
right and left sides, so points C and D are at the same potential. Thus, no current flows through and the circuit
is equivalent to (b). (Note that the reasoning in parts (a) and (b) is easily generalized to resistances of different
values; the generalization in part (c) requires the equality of ratios of resistances which are mirror images in the
plane of symmetry.)

71. INTERPRET This problem is about finding the voltage and internal resistance of a battery. We are given the
current values when the battery is connected to resistors of known resistance.
DEVELOP The circuit diagram is like Fig. 25.10, and Kirchhoff’s voltage law is

For the two cases given, this may be written as

 Electric Circuits 25.15

EVALUATE Solving for and we find

ASSESS The terminal voltage of the battery is which is lower than When
the battery is connected to a resistor of resistance R, the current in the circuit is
72. The loop law for a battery charging a capacitor through a resistor is Differentiate this and use
Equation 25.4 to obtain ( is given in Equation 25.5.)
For an initially uncharged capacitor, (an uncharged capacitor acts like a short circuit), so the initial rate of
increase of the capacitor’s voltage is If the capacitor were to charge steadily at this rate
(i.e., if the voltage were a linear function of time, the voltage would reach its final value
in just one time constant (i.e., for
73. INTERPRET Our circuit consists of an array of resistors of infinite extent, and we’re asked to find the equivalent
resistance.
DEVELOP Since the circuit line is infinite, the addition or deletion of one more element leaves the equivalent
resistance unchanged. This can be represented diagrammatically as

The right-hand picture represents R in series with the parallel combination R and Req. Thus,

EVALUATE Solving for one finds or

Note that only the positive root is physically meaningful for a resistance.
ASSESS Let’s see how this limiting value is reached. With only two resistors, the equivalent resistance is
Next, consider four resistors (the four on the left of Fig. 25.41). The equivalent resistance is

Continuing the same line of reasoning leads to the quadratic equation which we solved to obtain

74. (a). For the circuit considered, the voltage across the capacitor asymptotically approaches the battery voltage after
a long time (compared to the time constant). In Fig. 25.42, this is about 9 V. (b) The time constant is the time it
takes the capacitor voltage to reach of its asymptotic value, or 5.69 V in this case. From the graph,
(c) The time constant is RC, so

75. INTERPRET This problem asks for the current through an emf source which is part of a more complex circuit.
The solution requires analyzing a circuit with series and parallel components.
25.16 Chapter 25

DEVELOP Let us choose the positive sense for each of the three branch currents in Fig. 25.43 as upward through
their respective emf’s (at least one must be negative, of course), and consider the right loop and the big loop.
Kirchhoff’s circuit laws give:

Solve for and from the loop equations and substitute into the node equation:

The current in is
EVALUATE Solving For we find

The negative sign means that the direction of is opposite of what was shown in the diagram.

ASSESS The negative sign in can be easily understood by noting that is smaller than and
76. The relation between and the circuit emf’s and resistances, given in the solution to Problem 75, can be solved for
in Fig. 25.43, resulting in For and the rest of the circuit elements the
same,
77. INTERPRET We represent a “leaky” capacitor with an equivalent circuit diagram, and determine the time constant
for this circuit. We will also show that the time constant does not depend on the geometry of the capacitor, but only
on its material properties.
DEVELOP For part (a), see the figure later. For part (b), we will use the resistance of the insulation material,
where d is the thickness of the material and A is the area of the plates. We will also use the equation for
parallel-plate capacitance, where is the dielectric constant of glass. The time constant we are
seeking is
EVALUATE
(b) This is independent of the geometrical terms d and A, and depends only on the
material properties.

ASSESS This is actually pretty good for a capacitor. Materials with high resistivity and high dielectric constant
will make capacitors with longer leakage time constants.
78. INTERPRET We use Kirchhoff’s laws to write a system of equations for the circuit shown in Figure 25.24a, and
from the resulting equations we will determine the time constant of the circuit.
DEVELOP We first sketch our loops and nodes, as shown in the figure below. We have 3 unknowns, so we will
need 3 equations. Node A and node B give us duplicate information, so we will use only one of the two: our
equations must then come from loops 1 and 2, and node A.
Node A gives us Loop 1 gives us and loop 2 gives us
 Electric Circuits 25.17

The voltage across the capacitor is given by and We will eliminate and in our system of
equations, then rearrange the results into the form of Equation 25.4, from which we can easily identify the time
constant.
EVALUATE From node A, Substitute this into the equation for loop 1:

Now we substitute into the equation for loop 2:

We take the time derivative of this last equation:

Rearrange this slightly to obtain

Now here’s a trick: rather than solve this equation, we note that it’s the same equation as 25.4, with a different
cluster of constants in the position of the square brackets. In the solution to 25.4, we found that so here the
time constant must be

ASSESS This trick of putting the equation in a previously solved form can save us a lot of effort. Note that we can
only do it because all the terms in the square brackets are constants: if there was a term involving in those
brackets, then it would be a different equation and we couldn’t use the same solution.
79. INTERPRET We use Kirchhoff’s laws to write a system of equations for the circuit shown in Figure 25.39, and
from the resulting equations we will determine the current through resistor We will need 4 equations.
DEVELOP First we make a diagram of the circuit, as shown in the figure later. Nodes A and B give us duplicate
information, so we will use only node A, along with the three loops.
Node A:
Loop 1:
Loop 2:
Loop 3:
We will solve for as a function of time.
EVALUATE
Node A:
Loop 1:
25.18 Chapter 25

Loop 2:

Loop 3:

This is a second-order linear differential equation with constant coefficients. We can solve the homogenous
equation using the characteristic equation:

So the solution to the homogenous equation is

and the solution to the inhomogenous equation is

Now we need the initial condition on and Since both capacitors are initially uncharged and essentially short
circuits, and the initial voltage across the central capacitor is given by
This voltage creates a current through of

so

and

Applying the boundary condition to the solution obtained previously gives us and

applying

gives us

from which we can determine that

So, our final solution is

 Electric Circuits 25.19

ASSESS This was a difficult problem, but the technique used to set it up is the same as for an easier one:
Kirchhoff’s laws.
80. INTERPRET We must convert a battery energy rating (in watt-hours) at a given voltage to a charge rating of amp-
hours. We will use
DEVELOP The battery is specified as 50 watt-hours, which means that it can supply for 1 hour. We will
use to find I, knowing that the voltage is
EVALUATE
ASSESS This is an 8.33 amp-hour battery, which is sufficient for our requirements.
81. INTERPRET We need to create a resistance value using three different resistors. We can combine the resistors
in series and/or parallel. We will find the appropriate combination by making some educated guesses and seeing
what works.
DEVELOP The three resistors are and Resistors add in series, and in
parallel their reciprocals add.
One guess would be to place and in parallel so that the combination was smaller than either, then adding in
series to this combination. Try it!
EVALUATE and which is just what we wanted.
ASSESS Another reasonable guess might be to put and in series, then put in parallel across that
combination: but that method gives us only
82. INTERPRET We use an equation for the time constant of a leaky capacitor to determine if the capacitor will hold
its energy for a required amount of time. We will use the equation for the voltage on a capacitor, and the equation
for energy stored on a capacitor as a function of voltage.
DEVELOP We are given a time constant where and The energy stored in a
capacitor is and the voltage is We want for the capacitor to still hold half its energy after

EVALUATE The initial energy stored in the capacitor is After some time t, the energy is

so in order to store half (or more) of the initial energy,

ASSESS The time by which half the energy leaks away is too short—the capacitor does not work.