Electronic – Finding the current flowing in parallel circuit

ohms-law

Lets say we have a circuit with a voltage source and a 5 ohm resistor. The voltage source is 20 v and so the current flowing is 4 amperes (according to ohms law). Now, we add a short wire in parallel to the resistor (you can think of it as having a resistor whose resistance is 0 cpne ted in parallel with the first resistor. Finding the current flowing in each wire is hard since as you can see, we first need the equivalent resistance. The equivalent resistance is (1/((1/5)+(1/0))) and it turns out to be 0. Now using the current divider formula, each current yields 0 ampere which is wrong. Thanks

Best Answer

If the equivalent resistance is zero then there's also no voltage across it, per Ohm's Law. Then the current though the resistor is 0 V/ 5 Ω = 0 A. The current through the wire can't be calculated this way since 0 V/ 0 Ω is undefined.

Then the current will depend on the source's internal resistance. If that's 1 µΩ for instance the current will be 20 V/ 0.000001 Ω = 20 MA.
If the source has zero resistance current will be infinite.

Either way, applying this to the current divider formula gives for the resistor path:

\$ I_R = I_{tot} \dfrac{R_{tot}}{R} = I_{tot} \dfrac{0 \Omega}{5 \Omega} = 0 A \$

For the wire we get again

\$ I_W = I_{tot} \dfrac{R_{tot}}{R_W} = I_{tot} \dfrac{0 \Omega}{0 \Omega} = undefined \$

And we'll have to look at the external conditions to see how high the current is.

Edit

"Undefined sounds crazy to me"

It is, and mathematicians aren't happy with it either, but there's no other way. Any real thing you try leads to contradictions. Even the 0 volt that I claimed. (I know, I lied, but that was because otherwise I'd get dizzy. Ah, what the heck, let's go for dizziness.)

The voltage across the wire||resistor is

\$ V = \dfrac{R_{PSU}}{R || R_W + R_{PSU}} 20 V = \dfrac{0 \Omega}{0 \Omega + 0 \Omega} 20 V = undefined \$

I can't help it. But let's for the sake of argument say it's 10 V. 0 V didn't get us anywhere, and it has to be between 0 V and 20 V. Then the current through the resistor is 10 V/ 5 Ω = 2 A. The current through the wire is 10 V/ 0 Ω = \$\infty\$ A.
If we apply KCL:

\$ I_{tot} = I_R + I_W \$

That's

\$ \infty A = 2 A + \infty A \$

So far so good. But if we want t0 find \$I_R\$ from this we'll see that we can't! Despite the fact that we know it's 2 A. Let's try:

\$ I_R = \infty A - \infty A = undefined\$

Yeah, right, I always say undefined. Why would it be, if we know the result? OK, you're asking for it. So suppose

\$ \infty - \infty = 2 \$

Now we know that \$\infty\$ + \$\infty\$ = \$\infty\$, so

\$ (\infty + \infty) - \infty = 2 \$

or

\$ \infty + (\infty - \infty) = 2 \$

The value between the brackets is 2, that was our assumption. Then

\$ \infty + 2 = 2 \$

Subtract 2 from both sides, and

\$ \infty = 0 \$

which obviously isn't true. So our assumption was false. Now you can try with any number instead of 2 you'll always end up with a contradiction. So that's how we end up with undefined stuff and a dizzy head.