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GATE 2025 EC Q.20: solution and answer

GATE 2025 · ECQ.20 · 1 mark · MCQ

Let , , and be the currents flowing through the capacitor, inductor, and resistor, respectively, in the circuit given below. The AC admittances are given in Siemens (S).

Which one of the following is TRUE?

GATE 2025 EC question 20: A voltage source 1 ∠ 90° V on the left (+ terminal at top, − at bottom) connects between a top rail and a bottom rail.Tap to open full size
Figure from the GATE 2025 EC paper. It is part of the question.
Figure description

A voltage source 1 ∠ 90° V on the left (+ terminal at top, − at bottom) connects between a top rail and a bottom rail. Three branches are connected in parallel between these rails, from left to right: (1) a capacitor labelled j0.25 S, current i_C arrowed downward (top rail to bottom rail); (2) an inductor labelled -j0.1 S, current i_L arrowed downward; (3) a resistor labelled 0.2 S, current i_R arrowed downward. Junction dots mark where the capacitor and inductor branches meet the top and bottom rails. The source and the resistor branch join at the left and right corners of the rails.

  1. (A)

  2. (B)

  3. (C)

  4. (D)

Answer and solution

ANSWER

, which is option (A).

Official answer: ASource: Official answer key, GATE 2025 EC (IIT Roorkee)

  1. All three elements are connected directly across the source. Each current is arrowed from the + rail down to the − rail, so each element sees the full source voltage in the same direction as its current: .

  2. The values given are admittances, so Ohm's law in phasor form is : multiply by the admittance, do not divide. In polar form the magnitudes multiply and the angles add. Here and .

  3. Capacitor, : It leads by , as a capacitor current should.

  4. Inductor, : It lags by , as an inductor current should.

  5. Resistor, : It is in phase with .

  6. Only option (A) matches all three currents. Options (B) and (D) have magnitudes 4, 10 and 5, which you get by dividing by the admittance (, , ). Option (C) has the right magnitudes but the wrong phases for and .

KEY IDEA

In a parallel circuit every branch has the same voltage. When branch values are given as admittances, each branch current is . In polar form the magnitudes multiply and the angles add. The source angle of gives for the capacitor, for the inductor and for the resistor.

WATCH OUT FOR

Treating the siemens values as impedances and computing , which gives the magnitudes 4, 10 and 5 in options (B) and (D). A second slip is to take the source as the reference and forget the source angle, or to add the angles with the wrong sign. That produces phase sets like the ones in (C) and (D).

From the GATE 2025 EC paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 34 AC, power & resonance questions, with notes

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