Skip to content Skip to navigation

Connexions

You are here: Home » Content » Telegrapher's Equations

Navigation

Content Actions

  • Download module PDF
  • Add to ...
    Add the module to:
    • My Favorites
    • A lens
    • An external social bookmarking service
    • My Favorites (What is 'My Favorites'?)
      'My Favorites' is a special kind of lens which you can use to bookmark modules and collections directly in Connexions. 'My Favorites' can only be seen by you, and collections saved in 'My Favorites' can remember the last module you were on. You need a Connexions account to use 'My Favorites'.
    • A lens (What is a lens?)

      Definition of a lens

      Lenses

      A lens is a custom view of Connexions content. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see Connexions through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

      What is in a lens?

      Lens makers point to Connexions materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

      Who can create a lens?

      Any individual Connexions member, a community, or a respected organization.

      What are tags? tag icon

      Tags are descriptors added by lens makers to help label content, attaching a vocabulary that is meaningful in the context of the lens.

    • External bookmarks
  • E-mail the author
  • Rate this module (How does the rating system work?)

    Rating system

    Ratings

    Ratings allow you to judge the quality of modules. If other users have ranked the module then its average rating is displayed below. Ratings are calculated on a scale from one star (Poor) to five stars (Excellent).

    How to rate a module

    Hover over the star that corresponds to the rating you wish to assign. Click on the star to add your rating. Your rating should be based on the quality of the content. You must have an account and be logged in to rate content.

    (0 ratings)

Lenses

What is a lens?

Definition of a lens

Lenses

A lens is a custom view of Connexions content. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see Connexions through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

What is in a lens?

Lens makers point to Connexions materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

Who can create a lens?

Any individual Connexions member, a community, or a respected organization.

What are tags? tag icon

Tags are descriptors added by lens makers to help label content, attaching a vocabulary that is meaningful in the context of the lens.

This content is ...

Affiliated with (What does "Affiliated with" mean?)

This content is either by members of the organizations listed or about topics related to the organizations listed. Click each link to see a list of all content affiliated with the organization.
  • Featured Content display tagshide tags

    This module is included inLens: Connexions Featured Content
    By: ConnexionsAs a part of collection:"Introduction to Physical Electronics"

    Comments:

    "This course offers an introduction to solid state device including field effect and bipolar transistors. Properties of transmission lines and propagating E&M waves are also presented. It is […]"

    Click the "Featured Content" link to see all content affiliated with them.

    Click the tag icon tag icon to display tags associated with this content.

Recently Viewed

This feature requires Javascript to be enabled.

Tags

(What is a tag?)

These tags come from the endorsement, affiliation, and other lenses that include this content.

Telegrapher's Equations

Module by: Bill Wilson

Summary: This module introduces and derives the telegrapher's equations, which describe how electrical signals behave as they move along transmission lines.

Note: Your browser may not currently support MathML. See our browser support page for additional details. You can always view the correct math in the PDF version.

Let's look at just one little section of the line, and define some voltages and currents Figure 1.

Figure 1
Applying Kirchoff's Laws
Applying Kirchoff's Laws (6_07.png)
For the section of line Δx Δ x long, the voltage at its input is just Vxt V x t and the voltage at the output is Vx+Δxt V x Δ x t . Likewise, we have a current Ixt I x t entering the section, and another current Ix+Δxt I x Δ x t leaving the section of line. Note that both the voltage and the current are functions of time as well as position.

The voltage drop across the inductor is just:

V L =LΔxtIxt V L L Δ x t I x t (1)
Likewise, the current flowing down through the capacitor is
I C =CΔxtVx+Δxt I C C Δ x t V x Δ x t (2)
Now we do a KVL around the outside of the section of line and we get
Vxt V L Vx+Δxt=0 V x t V L V x Δ x t 0 (3)
Substituting Equation 1 for V L V L and taking it over to the RHS we have
VxtVx+Δxt=LΔxtIxt V x t V x Δ x t L Δ x t I x t (4)
Let's multiply by -1, and bring the Δx Δ x over to the left hand side.
Vx+ΔxtVxtΔx=-LtIxt V x Δ x t V x t Δ x L t I x t (5)
We take the limit as Δx0 Δ x 0 and the LHS becomes a derivative:
xVxt=-LtIxt x V x t L t I x t (6)
Now we can do a KCL at the node where the inductor and capacitor come together.
IxtCΔxtVx+ΔxtIx+Δxt=0 I x t C Δ x t V x Δ x t I x Δ x t 0 (7)
And upon rearrangement:
Ix+ΔxtIxtΔx=-CtVx+Δxt I x Δ x t I x t Δ x C t V x Δ x t (8)
Now when we let Δx0 Δ x 0 , the left hand side again becomes a derivative, and on the right hand side, Vx+ΔxtVxt V x Δ x t V x t , so we have:
xIxt=-CtVxt x I x t C t V x t (9)
Equation 6 and Equation 9 are so important we will write them out again together:
xVxt=-LtIxt x V x t L t I x t (10)
xIxt=-CtVxt x I x t C t V x t (11)
These are called the telegrapher's equations and they are all we really need to derive how electrical signals behave as they move along on transmission lines. Note what they say. The first one says that at some point xx along the line, the incremental voltage drop that we experience as we move down the line is just the distributed inductance LL times the time derivative of the current flowing in the line at that point. The second equation simply tells us that the loss of current as we go down the line is proportional to the distributed capacitance CC times the time rate of change of the voltage on the line. As you should be easily aware, what we have here are a pair of coupled linear differential equations in time and position for Vxt V x t and Ixt I x t

Comments, questions, feedback, criticisms?

Send feedback