The Wheatstone Bridge is a fundamental circuit used to measure unknown electrical resistances with great accuracy. It was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone, a British scientist, in 1843. The Wheatstone Bridge consists of four resistors, arranged in a diamond shape with a voltage source connected across one diagonal and a galvanometer (a sensitive current detector) connected across the other diagonal.
The basic principle behind the Wheatstone Bridge is the balancing of voltages across two branches of the circuit. When the voltages across the galvanometer terminals are equal (meaning no current flows through it), the bridge is said to be balanced. At this point, the ratio of the resistances in the two legs of the bridge is proportional to the ratio of the other two legs.
The formula for the balance condition in a Wheatstone Bridge is:
Where R1,R2,R3, and R4 are the resistances in the four arms of the bridge.
The Wheatstone Bridge is commonly used in various applications, including strain gauge measurements, temperature sensing, and determining the value of unknown resistors with high precision. It forms the basis of many electronic measurement instruments and circuits due to its simplicity and accuracy.
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