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short circuit
Sign in to saveAlso known as short, electrical short, dead short, shorted, shorted out
electrical circuit in which current can flow with very low or no impedance
A short circuit occurs when an electrical current finds a path with very little resistance between two points in a circuit, allowing electricity to flow much more easily than intended. This matters because short circuits can cause dangerous overheating, damage to equipment, and fire hazards, which is why electrical systems include safety devices like fuses and circuit breakers to prevent them.
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Encyclopedic overview
Tree limbs cause a short circuit during a storm, triggering an electrical arc.
A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to "short" or "s/c") is an electrical circuit that allows an electric current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance. This results in an excessive current flowing through the circuit.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “short circuit” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.