Figure 1. Figure 2.

Three wire connected at a node The standard way of displaying

with different currents travelling down Kirchhoff’s Current Law is by having all
each wire. currents either flowing towards or away
from the node.

I1 I1

I3 I3

I2
I2

Kirchhoff’s Current Law states

that for the diagram above, the currents
in the three wires must be related by:
Here, at least one of the currents
I1 + I 2 = I 3 will have to be negative (i.e, away from
the node and in the opposite direction to
It is important to note what is
the arrows on this diagram) and
meant by the signs of the current in the
Kirchhoff’s Current Law can be written
diagram (-) a positive current means that
as:
the currents are flowing in the directions
indicated on the diagram. I1 + I2 +I3 = 0

This can be generalized to the

case with n wires all connected at a
node by writing:
𝑛

∑ 𝐼𝑘 = 0
𝑘=1