Kirchhoff’s Current and Voltage Laws are at the center of circuit analysis. With them, we have the fundamental tool set we need to start studying circuits and the formulas for individual components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Named after German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff (1824-1887), Kirchhoff’s Laws are electromagnetic approximations derived from Maxwell’s Equations. Simply put, they are applicable when the size of the components in a circuit are substantially smaller than the wavelength of the signals traveling through the circuit.
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