Choice of Method
Choice of method is to some extent a matter of taste. If the network is particularly simple or only a specific current or voltage is required then ad-hoc application of some simple equivalent circuits may yield the answer without recourse to the more systematic methods.
- Superposition is possibly the most conceptually simple method but rapidly leads to a large number of equations and messy impedance combinations as the network becomes larger.
- Nodal analysis: The number of voltage variables, and hence simultaneous equations to solve, equals the number of nodes minus one. Every voltage source connected to the reference node reduces the number of unknowns (and equations) by one.
- Mesh analysis: The number of current variables, and hence simultaneous equations to solve, equals the number of meshes. Every current source in a mesh reduces the number of unknowns by one. Mesh analysis can only be used with networks which can be drawn as a planar network, that is, with no crossing components.
Read more about this topic: Network Analysis (electrical Circuits)
Famous quotes containing the words choice of, choice and/or method:
“Excellence or virtue is a settled disposition of the mind that determines our choice of actions and emotions and consists essentially in observing the mean relative to us ... a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“If we pretend to respect the artist at all, we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify. Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
He had not the method of making a fortune.”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)