Difference between revisions of "Kirchoff's voltage law"
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Revision as of 03:50, October 9, 2007
Kirchoff's voltage law (KVL) states that that the voltage drops in any closed electrical loop must sum to 0.[1] A voltage drop is the change in voltage over any element in a circuit.
KVL is derived from the fact that the voltage at any point in the circuit must have a defined value. For example, say you start at point A and travel around the loop adding up voltages along the way. If the voltage drops did not sum to zero then when you returned to point A it would have a different voltage than when you started, which is impossible.<ref name="Schwarz">
- ↑ Schwarz, Stephen E. and William G. Oldham. Electrical Engineering: An Introduction, 2e. Oxford University Press: 1993.