we are now in an opportune position; we know the voltages at the two ends of Re and thus can determine the current Ie through it, / since the collector is connected through Rc to the + 10-V power supply, it appears possible that the collector voltage will be higher than the base voltage, which is essential for active-mode operation. Assuming that this is the case, we can evaluate the collector current from / the value of a is obtained from / thus Ic will be given by / we are now in a position to use Ohm's law to determine the collector Vc, / since the base is at +4 V, the collector-base junction is reverse-biased by 1.3 V , and the transistor is indeed in the active mode as assumed. It remains only to determine the base current Ib, as follows: