• Question: Why is a 'short circuit' called a short circuit?

    Asked by nkjones to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 14 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Will Reynolds

      Will Reynolds answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      Hi nkjones. A short circuit is when somthing happens to an electrical circuit to create a shorter route for the electricity to travel than the original circuit. This happens when the circuit comes into contact with another highly conductive material, like water. This usually damages the circuit and stops it from working properly. The term short circuit is often used for lots of electrical problems, even if the cause of the problem was not actually a ‘short circuit’. Hope this helps.

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      Hi nkjones!

      A short circuit is like a short cut – instead of electrons going all the way round the wiring of your (possibly quite long) circuit, they take the short cut if they can – called a short circuit.
      How’s that for an answer? Have you every short circuited something by accident! I have, and it caused a right spark!

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Hiya nkjones – like all things in life electrons are lazy and like to take the quickets shortest route if they can, and a short circuit is them finding a quicker shorter route to take then the longer one initially planed by us.

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      I have nothing to add to the answer (Will/Sarah/Karen have already answered brilliantly), but I just wanted to say that this question reminded me of a film that I used to love when I was younger called Short Circuit.
      It’s about a robot who gets electrocuted in a lab, becomes super smart and then escapes!

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