Voltage and Current

Division Rules

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Objectives

To apply the voltage and current

division rules.

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Voltage Division
For example, we know
i = VTOTAL / (R1 + R2 + R3)
so the voltage over the first resistor
is
V1=i R1 = R1 VTOTAL / (R1 + R2 + R3)

R1
v1 = V
R1 + R2 + R3
To find the voltage over an individual resistance in series, take the total series
voltage and multiply by the individual resistance over the total resistance.
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Example
determine the voltage across each resistor

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Example
determine the voltage across
each resistor

vs
is =
R1 + R2
R1
v1 =
vs
R1 + R2
R2
v2 =
vs
R1 + R2

iS
iS

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Summary
The source voltage v is divided among the resistors in direct proportion
to their resistances
the larger the resistance, the larger the voltage drop.
This is called the principle of voltage division,
In general
If a voltage divider has N resistors (R1,R2, . . . , RN) in series with the
source voltage v, the nth resistor (Rn) will have a voltage drop of

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Current Division
If we know the current flowing into two parallel resistors, we can find out how
the current will divide up in one step.

v
i1 =
R1

1
R1 R 2
i1 =
i
R1 R1 + R2
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

R2
i1 = i
R1 + R2
ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Note that this differs slightly from the voltage division formula for series resistors

R2 = 0 implies that i1 = 0, i2 = i.

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

R2 = , that is, R2 is an open

, then
R2
Req = R1

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Example
Find i1 and i2 in terms of is

is = i1 + i2

is

R1

i1

R2

i2

v1 = v2

i1 R1 = i2 R2
R1
R1
R2 + R1
= i1
i2 = i1
is = i1 + i1
R2
R2
R2

R2
i1 = is
R1 + R2
R1
i2 = is
R1 + R2
Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

Example
Use Voltage and current division rules to find Vo and io

63
=2
6+3

Step 1

Step 1

Step 2

Dr.-Eng. Hisham El-Sherif

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department

ELCT708: Electronics for Biotechnology

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