Lab 3 - Nodal Analysis

Objective:
The purpose of the lab is to determine the voltage across two nodes(V2 and V3) using nodal analysis and then use those values to find the power supplied to the circuit from both batteries.

Schematic of Circuit

Step 1 (Calculations before building circuit):

The given values:

VBat1 = 12V

VBat2 = 9V

RC1 = 100Ω

RC2 = RC3 = 220Ω

RL1 = RL2 =  1000Ω

These values were used to determine the values of V2 and V3 using nodal analysis, along with the power and current leaving the batteries. The calculation is  shown below:   

Calculation for V2 and V3

Using Nodal Analysis, V2 = 10.26 V and V3 = 8.67V

Calculation for Current and Power leaving each battery

The current leaving each battery: IBat1 = .0174A and IBat2 = .0015A

The power supplied by each battery: PBat1 = .2088W  and PBat2 = .0135W

The Circuit:

The Measured Values:

Actual Power Supplied:

The Changed Circuit:

For this circuit, it is now assumed at V2 = V3 = 9V and need to find the required battery voltages for the circuit.

Using nodal analysis, it is determined that the battery voltages needed are VBat1 = 9.9V and VBat2 = 10.98V

The Circuit model:

The Measured Values:

Conclusion

The experiment showed nodal analysis can be used to determine the approximate values of the actual measurements of voltage and current through a circuit.  This can be concluded due to the percent errors obtained to be very small, with the largest error being less than 5%.  So it can be assumed that nodal analysis is useful to calculate the voltage and current of a circuit.