I have some questions about multiple voltage sources while figuring out KVL. Ive included a circuit labs circuit which shows my question more clearly.
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4See How do I use superposition to solve a circuit? for the general method. However, your circuit can just be solved by using KVL without any need for superposition. – The Photon May 27 '16 at 03:37
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1If you want us to answer the specific questions in your circuitlab page, you should include those questions in what you post here. – The Photon May 27 '16 at 03:42
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Gotcha. I didn't know what superposition was until now. I will add the body of the text from the circuit labs into the SE question in the future. – Eric Heagan May 28 '16 at 04:28
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The reason you'd subtract is because the positive terminals are facing each other. You could compare it to forces applied to an object in physics. If you have a box and one person is pushing from each side and person A is pushing with 48 Newtons of force from one side and person B is pushing with 30 Newtons of force from the other side, the object will move away from person A as if it was being pushed with 18 Newtons of force. If the two voltage sources both had their terminals in the same direction, then it would be 48+30 = 78 volts.
The second part of your question about KVL; you need math to figure out the current but yes, the current is the same around the loop.
Daveythewavey19
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Great.Thanks for the explanation. So the voltage source with the higher Voltage/force pushes the circuit's electrons backwards through the voltage source with the lower voltage/force; therefore the circuits total voltage diminishes to 18 volts. – Eric Heagan May 28 '16 at 04:37
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and the 18 volts pushes both current sources with it. Which totals 1.63 amps. – Eric Heagan May 28 '16 at 04:49