Wheatstone bridge - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.
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Wheatstone bridge
A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to
measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two
legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown
component. The primary benefit of the circuit is its ability to
provide extremely accurate measurements (in contrast with
something like a simple voltage divider).[1] Its operation is
similar to the original potentiometer.
The Wheatstone bridge was invented by Samuel Hunter
Christie in 1833 and improved and popularized by Sir Charles
Wheatstone in 1843. One of the Wheatstone bridge's initial
uses was for the purpose of soils analysis and comparison.[2]
Wheatstone bridge circuit diagram. The unknown
resistance Rx is to be measured; resistances R1,
R2 and R3 are known and R2 is adjustable. If the
Contents measured voltage VG is 0, then R2/R1 = Rx/R3.
Operation
Derivation
Significance
Modifications of the fundamental bridge
See also
References
External links
Operation
In the figure, is the unknown resistance to be measured; and are resistors of known resistance and the
resistance of is adjustable. The resistance is adjusted until the bridge is "balanced" and no current flows through
the galvanometer . At this point, the voltage between the two midpoints (B and D) will be zero. Therefore the ratio of
the two resistances in the known leg is equal to the ratio of the two in the unknown leg . If the bridge is
unbalanced, the direction of the current indicates whether is too high or too low.
At the point of balance,
Detecting zero current with a galvanometer can be done to extremely high precision. Therefore, if and are
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Wheatstone bridge - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_bridge
known to high precision, then can be measured to high precision. Very small changes in disrupt the balance and
are readily detected.
Alternatively, if and are known, but is not adjustable, the voltage difference across or current flow through
the meter can be used to calculate the value of using Kirchhoff's circuit laws. This setup is frequently used in strain
gauge and resistance thermometer measurements, as it is usually faster to read a voltage level off a meter than to adjust
a resistance to zero the voltage.
Derivation
First, Kirchhoff's first law is used to find the currents in
junctions B and D:
Then, Kirchhoff's second law is used for finding the voltage in
the loops ABD and BCD:
When the bridge is balanced, then IG = 0, so the second set of Directions of currents arbitrarily assigned
equations can be rewritten as:
Then, equation (1) is divided by equation (2) and the resulting equation is rearranged, giving:
Due to: I3 = Ix and I1 = I2 being proportional from Kirchoff's First Law in the above equation I3 I2 over I1 Ix cancel
out of the above equation. The desired value of Rx is now known to be given as:
On the other hand, if the resistance of the galvanometer is high enough that IG is negligible, it is possible to compute Rx
from the three other resistor values and the supply voltage (VS), or the supply voltage from all four resistor values. To
do so, one has to work out the voltage from each potential divider and subtract one from the other. The equations for
this are:
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where VG is the voltage of node D relative to node B.
Significance
The Wheatstone bridge illustrates the concept of a difference measurement, which can be extremely accurate.
Variations on the Wheatstone bridge can be used to measure capacitance, inductance, impedance and other quantities,
such as the amount of combustible gases in a sample, with an explosimeter. The Kelvin bridge was specially adapted
from the Wheatstone bridge for measuring very low resistances. In many cases, the significance of measuring the
unknown resistance is related to measuring the impact of some physical phenomenon (such as force, temperature,
pressure, etc.) which thereby allows the use of Wheatstone bridge in measuring those elements indirectly.
The concept was extended to alternating current measurements by James Clerk Maxwell in 1865 and further improved
by Alan Blumlein around 1926.
Modifications of the fundamental bridge
The Wheatstone bridge is the fundamental bridge, but there
are other modifications that can be made to measure various
kinds of resistances when the fundamental Wheatstone bridge
is not suitable. Some of the modifications are:
Carey Foster bridge, for measuring small resistances
Kelvin bridge, for measuring small four-terminal
resistances
Maxwell bridge, and Wien bridge for measuring reactive
components. Kelvin bridge
See also
Diode bridge, product mixer - diode bridges
Phantom circuit – a circuit using a balanced bridge
Post Office Box
Potentiometer (measuring instrument)
Potential divider
Ohmmeter
Resistance thermometer
Strain gauge
References
1. "Circuits in Practice: The Wheatstone Bridge, What It Does, and Why It Matters", as discussed in this MIT ES.333
class video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G-dySnSSG4)
2. "The Genesis of the Wheatstone Bridge" by Stig Ekelof discusses Christie's and Wheatstone's contributions, and
why the bridge carries Wheatstone's name. Published in "Engineering Science and Education Journal", volume 10,
no 1, February 2001, pages 37–40.
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External links
DC Metering Circuits (http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/DC/DC_8.html) chapter from Lessons In
Electric Circuits Vol 1 DC (http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/DC/index.html) free ebook and Lessons In
Electric Circuits (http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/) series.
Test Set I-49 (http://radionerds.com/index.php/I-49)
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