Fundamental natural laws dealing with the relation of currents at a junction and the voltages around a loop. These laws are commonly used in the analysis and solution of networks. They may be used directly to solve circuit problems, and they form the basis for network theorems used with more complex networks.
One way of stating Kirchhoff's voltage law is: “At each instant of time, the algebraic sum of the voltage rise is equal to the algebraic sum of the voltage drops, both being taken in the same direction around the closed loop.”
Kirchhoff's current law may be expressed as follows: “At any given instant, the sum of the instantaneous values of all the currents flowing toward a point is equal to the sum of the instantaneous values of all the currents flowing away from the point.” See also Circuit (electricity).
