circuit theorems

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,827
so V - IR which is 0.001x6000 = 6V ?
You've got "V - IR" but I don't see a corresponding equation. Did you mean "V = IR"?

It should be

0.001 A x 6000 Ω = 6 V.

You REALLY should get in the habit of tracking units properly in EVERYTHING you do (for which units are applicable).

You will make far fewer mistakes. most of the mistakes you make you will catch right away, and you will be able to fix those mistakes and move on much quicker.

You will always be making mistakes throughout your professional life -- we all do, it's part of being human. The proper care with and tracking of units is perhaps the single most effective error-detection tool available to the engineer; failing to use it is, in my opinion, gross negligence -- and from time to time courts have agreed.

If anything, it is even more important for a mechanical engineer because the variety of different unit systems in use for the same quantities is much greater. I watched someone die because they couldn't be bothered to track their units through their work (as was determined by the subsequent accident investigation). Don't risk becoming the next victim of being too lazy to properly track your units.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,827
so would the potential difference between 0V and VOUT be 6V-4V=2V?
No. The potential difference between Vout and 0 V is the voltage at the Vout node (relative to whatever measuring point you want to use) minus the voltage at the 0 V node (relative to that SAME measuring point). It is just like if you wanted to determine the height of a building using the height of the top of the building relative to sea level and the height of the bottom of the building relative to sea level. Or you could use the height of the top of the building relative to the height of the top of the flagpole in the courtyard as long as you use the height of the bottom of the building relative to the top of that same flagpole. You could arbitrarily pick any reference point you want and call it the zero height point. We can do the same thing with the voltage in a circuit and pick one point and call it 0 V. When we talk about the voltage AT any node, we implicitly mean the voltage difference between that node and the node we picked and called 0 V.

The voltage difference between Vout and the 0 V node in your circuit is also the voltage difference across R2.

The 4 V is the voltage across R1.

Just like the sum of elevation gains and losses has to be the same as you go from some point and then along some path back to that same point, so too must the sum of the voltage gains and losses around a closed loop in a circuit total to zero.

As we go from the 0 V node and then up through the DC supply, we gain 10 V. As we then go over and come down through R1 we lose 4 V (the voltage across a resistor drops in the direction of the current flow) and then we lose the other 6 V as we go across R2, putting us back as 0 V.
 
Top