+33661 Ok, I watched the video. It was very clear for the most part (though a little puzzling that he said he wasn't going to use Kirchoff's laws and then proceeded to use Kirchoff's current law to set up his equations! I guess he meant he wasn't going to use both laws together.).
However, if you don't understand how to use matrices, the last part, where he gets the voltages by producing results obtained with a calculator, must seem like black magic! With just two simultaneous equations it's not too difficult to solve the matrix equations by hand (though a little tedious, which is why he just used a calculator). It is worth taking the time to understand enough about matrices so that you don't think it's black magic, even if you do eventually use a calculator or computer software to do the number crunching.
As long as you only deal with two simultaneous equations, it doesn't much matter which approach you take. However, the more simultaneous equations you have to solve, the better it is to adopt a matrix approach (though, inevitably, computer software using advanced numerical solution algorithms are required to do the number crunching for large matrices), so it's worth learning the principles of how to do this with just two.
The following site might help with learning how to solve simultaneous equations using matrices: http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/systems-linear-equations-matrices.html
+52 Hi Alan,
Yeah i'm wanting to expand my knowledge enough that i can get around these calculations for circuits for working out voltages and currents.
I also need to learn how to work with matrices. The problem like we discussed on here i think may be able to be solved by a matrix. Maybe your way is the best though for the type of equation we've talked about. The matrices seem like a lot more work. Maybe that's just because i don't know about them yet though.
I'm going to include a link to a video i've been watching on YT on nodal analysis. The guy get's two equations, re-arranges them and then instead of solving them by elimination or substitution he puts them through a matrix and gets the result.
Again i'm a total beginner again so don't have a clue whether that's the best way to approach these things or not. I'm just at the flailing around in the dark stage with anything complicated!
Have a look and see what you think. I know Neil Storey's book go's into matrices a bit further in than where i am at the moment. That's a bit complex for me at the moment though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHcnMyFJjD4&list=LLHvr2s59Qp1Vs127pg7lLfA&index=2
