I am having trouble deciding when to use current division or voltage division. I thought you could use either when in a case where there are resistors in both parallel and series.
For this problem, I was to find the power dissipated in the 5 ohm resistor, given the source current is 15 A.
For my first approach, I tried to use current division to find the current in the 6 ohm resistor using the Resistance equivalent of the entire system. Then I found the current in the 5 ohm resistor and solved for power. This resulted in an incorrect result.
My second attempt used voltage division, and I found the correct answer, but I don't understand why the first method didn't work.
For this problem, I was to find the power dissipated in the 5 ohm resistor, given the source current is 15 A.
For my first approach, I tried to use current division to find the current in the 6 ohm resistor using the Resistance equivalent of the entire system. Then I found the current in the 5 ohm resistor and solved for power. This resulted in an incorrect result.
My second attempt used voltage division, and I found the correct answer, but I don't understand why the first method didn't work.