Walk the Loop Like a Hill

You'll learnto take loop-rule signs from the direction you are walking rather than from the type of component, to write an equation for any closed path, and to check a potential sketch by whether it comes back to its start.

Two batteries in one loop, one opposing the other. The equation that treats every battery as an addition gives three amperes where the answer is one. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · SIGNS FROM THE WALK · ANY CLOSED PATH · IT MUST CLOSE · v2

the same battery, two signs · the trace must land where it began

Before you start

What you're looking at

One loop holding two opposing batteries and two resistors, with a dashed walking direction marked inside it. On the right, your height in volts as you walk.

The question

Where do the plus and minus signs in a loop equation come from?

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