What does an electric circuit mean

A short circuit is an abnormal condition in an An electrical circuit is a circular flow of energy from a home's electrical service panel and back again. This flow is continuous and unbroken. Items along the circuit such as outlets and lights only borrow from the circuit; they do not break the circuit. • Vermin or pests chewing through wires • Water or other fluids coming into contact with electrical wiring • Loose connections in an electrical box • Old or damaged outlets, switches, lights, appliances, or other electrical devices • Nails or screws piercing through walls and coming into contact with wires • Deterioration of electrical cable sheathing • Build-up or In your home, circuit breakers, ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs), and arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs) prevent fire and electrical shock. • • Ground-fault circuit interrupters are also sensitive to changes in electrical current flow, automatically shutting off the current's flow in case of fluctuations. • Arc-fault circuit interrupters protect against arcs or jumping electrical currents that can cause a fire. They also shut the power off, anticipating an imminent short circuit. Types of Short Circuits Normal Short Circuit In a normal short circuit, a powered or hot wire touches a neutral wire. Immediately, resistance drops and current begins to move in another path.

parallel circuit, an electrical path that branches so that the current divides and only part of it flows through any branch. The voltage, or potential difference, across each branch of a parallel See also Above are resistors R 1 and R 2 in series (1A) and in parallel (1B). If two resistors are connected as shown in Figure 1B, the electric charges have alternate paths for flowing from c to d. The resistance to the flow of charge from c to d is clearly less than if either R 1 or R 2 were missing. Anyone who has ever had to find a way out of a crowded theatre can appreciate how much easier it is to leave a building with several exits than one with a single exit. The If the resistors R 1 and R 2 are imagined to be wires of the same length and material, they would be wires with different cross-sectional areas. Connecting them in parallel is equivalent to placing them side by side, increasing the total area available for the flow of charge. The equivalent resistance is smaller than the resistance of either This article was most recently revised and updated by

What is a short circuit? Electricity taking the easiest path By Meg Murphy Children are told: never stick a metal knife into a plugged-in toaster. You risk electrocution, or the toaster catching on fire. The fear: a short circuit. For the heater inside a toaster to work, an electrical current must travel inside its conductive metal material. That current cycles through a closed circuit, which is a loop. A metal knife, however, presents the electricity with an optional path to travel — and it will take it. “A short circuit is a connection between two parts of an electrical circuit that you don’t want to be there,” says Karl Berggren, professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He also heads the Quantum Nanostructures and Nanofabrication Group in the Research Laboratory for Electronics. “When you build an electrical circuit, you try to make the current go through certain paths to perform certain functions,” he explains. “In the case of a toaster, when you introduce a knife to the heating element, it provides the current with a short cut. This new path is easier than moving through the heating element, which has a lot of resistance to the flow.” So what exactly happens when the electricity changes course. First of all, Berggren says, your toaster stops working. “Your device will not function as intended because the current is not going where it is supposed to go,” he says. And then it gets worse, very, very quickly. “B...

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By • What is a circuit? In electronics, a circuit is a complete circular path that electricity flows through. A simple circuit consists of a current source, How electronic circuits work In an electronic circuit, electrons come out of the power source, travel along conductors, go through a load to perform work and are finally returned to the source. It is called a circuit because of the circular path that the electrons flow through. The relationship between the electrical flow and load is described in Most modern electronic devices use Circuits can be miniaturized and printed on a substrate in an integrated circuit ( An open circuit is when the path for electricity is broken so that it cannot flow in a complete circuit. In an open circuit, no electricity can flow and no work can be done. A short circuit is when there is an electrical path directly from the output to the input of a power supply. Since electricity wants to find the shortest path, or path of least resistance, all of the current will go through the short, bypassing the load. This will cause the circuit to no longer work properly and can damage the power supply, cause parts to overheat and potentially start a fire. To protect against short circuits causing damage, a fuse or Circuits can be miniaturized and printed on a substrate in an integrated circuit that contains all circuit traces, capacitors, transistors and other required parts. Microcontrollers are types of integrated circuits that govern specific operat...

On This Page • • • • • • • • • The Problem It’s a dark and stormy night. You flick on the hall light, plug in the coffee maker and crank up the portable electric heater. You’re starting to feel comfy, when you hear a faint, yet ominous, click—and everything goes black. It’s not a cat burglar or a poltergeist playing tricks with your electrical system. It’s an Family Handyman Figure A: A Properly Functioning 15-AMP Circuit This circuit has wires and an electrical circuit breaker that can easily carry the amperage required by the devices on it. What’s a Circuit? When electricity enters your home, it goes to a circuit breaker box (or fuse box in older homes), where it’s divided into a number of circuits. Each circuit is protected by a breaker or fuse. Bedrooms, living rooms and family rooms where only lights, alarm clocks and other small Fig. D in “Additional Information” below), protected by big, “double pole” circuit breaker sizes. What’s a Circuit Overload? The circuit breaker, the Fig. B). Wires heat up under the burden of carrying the excess current. When this happens, the insulation around the wire can degrade or even melt. When insulation melts, current is no longer confined within the wire. That’s when fires start. Luckily, the circuit breaker senses the excess current and “trips” to stop the flow of power before damage occurs. On the night the lights went out at your house, you were fine with only the lights and coffee maker operating. The real trouble ...

What Is an Electronic Circuit? - dummies An electronic circuit is a complete course of conductors through which current can travel. Circuits provide a path for current to flow. To be a circuit, this path must start and end at the same point. In other words, a circuit must form a loop. An electronic circuit and an electrical circuit has the same definition, but electronic circuits tend to be low voltage circuits. Of course, circuits can be more complex. However, all circuits can be distilled down to three basic elements: • Voltage source: A voltage source causes current to flow like a battery, for instance. • Load: The load consumes power; it represents the actual work done by the circuit. Without the load, there's not much point in having a circuit. The load can be as simple as a single light bulb. In complex circuits, the load is a combination of components, such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, and so on. • Conductive path: The conductive path provides a route through which current flows. This route begins at the voltage source, travels through the load, and then returns to the voltage source. This path must form a loop from the negative side of the voltage source to the positive side of the voltage source. The following paragraphs describe a few additional interesting points to keep in mind as you ponder the nature of basic circuits: • When a circuit is complete and forms a loop that allows current to flow, the circuit is called a closed circuit. If any part of t...