Kirchhoff's Current Law

What is Kirchhoff's Current Law?

The algebraic sum of currents entering and leaving any node in a circuit is zero. It holds regardless of what sits at the node — resistors, sources or plain wire — simply because charge has nowhere else to go.

The five clues

Engineerdle #58 described Kirchhoff's Current Law with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01One of two laws by the same person that underpin all circuit analysis.
2. 02It is really conservation of charge in disguise.
3. 03It applies at a node, not around a loop.
4. 04What flows in must flow out; the algebraic sum is zero.
5. 05Abbreviated with three letters, the middle one being C.

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