SHORT CIRCUITS

Short Circuit in a Car

DEFINITION

A short circuit is an accidental path of low resistance which passes an abnormally high amount of current.

A short circuit is simply a low resistance connection between the two conductors supplying electrical power to any circuit. This results in excessive current flow in the power source through the 'short,' and may even cause the power source to be destroyed.

Short Circuit Examples

In electrical devices, unintentional short circuits are usually caused when a wire's insulation breaks down, or when another conducting material is introduced, allowing charge to flow along a different path than the one intended.

Short circuits can produce very high temperatures due to the high power dissipation in the circuit. If a charged, high-voltage capacitor is short circuited by a thin wire, the resulting huge current and power dissipation will cause the wire to actually explode.

Short Circuit

It is common to misuse "short circuit" to describe any electrical malfunction, regardless of the actual problem.

What can be done?

Damage from short circuits can be reduced or prevented by employing fuses, circuit, circuit breakers, or other overload protection, which disconnect the power in reaction to excessive current.

Brain Short-Circuit Demonstration

Each of our brains is wired differently.

The demonstration is quite simple.

On the next slide there are words in different colours. Try to read aloud the COLOUR of each word, not the word itself. So for the first word, you should say "Green". Try it - it's harder than it looks.

Discussion

Did you find this activity easy or difficult?

If you found this hard to do, why? How could this brain activity be

related to short circuits and electricity?

Did your brain try to take the easier path and as a result did you say the colour instead of the word?