TABLE OF CONTENTS C ircuit analysis is the process of finding specific voltages or currents in a circuit. This process is of paramount importance because we must learn to analyze circuits before we can design new ones or adapt existing ones to new needs. In resistive circuits the formulation of the equations governing the voltage and current variables is based solely on Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's laws.
We have already been exposed to simple instances of circuit analysis in Chapter 2. In the present chapter we approach this topic in a more systematic and general manner. Our goal is not only to teach the mathematical aspects of circuit analysis, but also to help the reader develop a physical feel for circuits. To prevent mathematics from obscuring the physical aspect, we shall keep our circuits as simple as possible. Even so, our circuits are of the type and complexity that working engineers see every day. In the next chapter we show that even when dealing with more complex networks it is often possible to break them down into subcircuits of more manageable size and analyze them individually, still using the techniques of the present chapter.
Before embarking upon a systematic approach to analysis, we find it instructive to examine some illustrative circuits from a synthesis viewpoint in Section 3.1. We find that synthesis provides the reader with a better feeling for how the element laws and the connection laws interact to make a circuit work.
We then turn to the...
