How Do You Calculate Total Resistance in a Diagonal Battery and Resistor Setup?

[dukeedee]

I tried finding this same problem somewhere in the forums here but I couldn't find a similar one, its getting the best of me! I have a problem with a square and a line going diagonal from corner to corner, with a 1.5v battery on the diagonal and on the top side a 4ohm resistor and 6ohm resistor on the other side. So the battery intersects the corner with a resistor on either side of the corner. Would it just be two in parallel so (1/4 + 1/6)^-1 = 2.4ohms? I cannot figure it out, help please!

 

[ehild]

A lead can be as sort as you like. Both terminals of those resistors are connected through the wires, and the shape and length of the wires does not matter. You are right, the resistors are in parallel, and the resultant is 2.4 ohms.

ehild

 

[supratim1]

if you get confused by seeing the shapes, don't worry. try drawing an equivalent circuit, keeping the terminals same, using straight wires. you will see easily that its a parallel connection.

 

[dukeedee]

Ah, i see. That's whatwas holding me up. Thanks guys!

 

[rwisz]

I would approach this problem by first identifying the components involved and their properties. From the description, it seems that we have a square with a 1.5v battery placed diagonally, and two resistors (4ohm and 6ohm) on the top side of the square.

To solve this problem, we can use Ohm's Law, which states that the current (I) flowing through a conductor is directly proportional to the voltage (V) and inversely proportional to the resistance (R). This can be expressed as I = V/R.

In this case, we can see that the current will split into two paths at the corner where the battery intersects with the resistors. This is known as a parallel circuit.

To calculate the total resistance in a parallel circuit, we use the formula:

1/Rt = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3 + ...

Where Rt is the total resistance and R1, R2, R3, etc. are the individual resistances in the circuit.

Thus, for the given problem, we can calculate the total resistance as:

1/Rt = 1/4 + 1/6

1/Rt = 5/12

Rt = 12/5 = 2.4ohms

Therefore, the total resistance in this circuit is 2.4ohms, as you correctly calculated.

I would also like to mention that it is always important to double-check our calculations and make sure that they make sense in the context of the problem. In this case, our calculated resistance should be lower than both the individual resistances (4ohms and 6ohms), which it is, indicating that our solution is correct.

I hope this explanation helps you understand the problem better. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.