Can someone please tell me what's an Open Circuit and Short Circuit?

Question

I still have no idea what this term means in the real world sense

Can someone Pleasee explain it to me like i am a 10 year old what it means by a Short Circuit and an Open Circuit ?

Answer 1

Most people mistake a short circuit for an open circuit. Remember, electricity has to run in "circles," kind of like a track. If there is a "break" in that track anywhere, the electricity won't flow. That's an open circuit. Think of a simple circuit with a battery, a switch, and a light bulb. If the switch is in the "off" position, it's an open circuit because the switch is breaking that path. Once you flip the switch and connection is made, however, the circuit is completed and the light comes on.

A short circuit is one where electricity "jumps" somewhere that it's not supposed to go. Electrical systems and microchips are designed for electricity to flow when and where they want it to flow. If you cross the wires, or if you lay a metal object across a circuit board that allows electricity to flow where it wasn't designed to flow, you get a short-circuit. Short-circuits can cause fires or blow fuses or circuit breakers (and when that happens, you have an open circuit again because the electricity isn't flowing anymore).

Open circuits are easier to deal with because the fix is finding where that "break" in the circuit is and then fixing it. Short-circuits are much harder to figure out because as long as you have a short circuit you can keep blowing fuses and circuit breakers, making it very difficult to figure out where the electricity is "jumping the track."

Make sense?

Answer 2

In order for current to flow in an electric circuit. There must be a complete pqth or circuit from the power source through some device and back to the source. An open circuit is a circuit that is not continuous, and has a gap in it somewhere. A snort circuit occurs when a connection exists that by passes thedevice so that the current flows through the bypass rather than through the device.

Answer 3

A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c) allows a charge to flow along a different path from the one intended. The electrical opposite of a short circuit is an open circuit, which is infinite resistance between two nodes. It is common to misuse "short circuit" to describe any electrical malfunction, regardless of the actual problem.

A short circuit is an accidental low-resistance connection between two nodes of an electrical circuit that are meant to be at different voltages. This results in an excessive electric current limited only by the Thevenin equivalent resistance of the rest of the network and potentially causes circuit damage, overheating, fire or explosion. Although usually the result of a fault, there are cases where short circuits are caused intentionally, for example, for the purpose of voltage-sensing crowbar circuit protectors.

In circuit analysis, the term short circuit is used by analogy to designate a zero-impedance connection between two nodes. This forces the two nodes to be at the same voltage. In an ideal short circuit, this means there is no resistance and no voltage drop across the short. In simple circuit analysis, wires are considered to be shorts. In real circuits, the result is a connection of nearly zero impedance, and almost no resistance. In such a case, the current drawn is limited by the rest of the circuit.

Answer 4

Short circuit means there a direct short>Breaker or fuse trip-ed>open circuit means light switch off>closed> light on>