Question

Imagine a battery shorted with a very long conducting wire.
Q : if the wire is uniform through out the loop, can i use V = E.dl directly (to know potential drop between two points) ?

If yes, how can we extend the same concept to a loop containing few resistors in series ?

I am stuck in Lec.9... pls help..

Answer 1

use the fact that I=constant for different R 's so E will vary with R directly for all R's(resistors)..

Answer 2

not clear.. you mean loop length is constant ?
and,
equation V = E.dl doesnt say E varies with R... can you pls explain some more... ?

Answer 3

i quote "Q : if the wire is uniform through out the loop, can i use V = E.dl directly (to know potential drop between two points) ?"
ans : yes because the resistance is uniformly distributed.

for discrete resistances in series the voltage is distributed between the resistances as the conducting wire has negligible resistance..
since same current through both the resistors,therefore the V around each is in inverse ratio of the resistance values of the resistors.