What is a short circuit mean in Electrical and Electronic Engineering?
Each of the first six responses to “what is a short circuit?” are correct. However they fail to address the fact that a short circuit is an unintentional current path that typically produces enough extra current to flow in the circuit that the overcurrent protective device for the circuit trips. If the impedance of the short circuit is low enough the protective device operates instantaneously. If the impedance of the short circuit is higher the fault path (or short circuit by another name) can appear to the protective device as an overload. If the impedance of the fault path is higher it may only cause the circuit function to not work properly and the power would continue to flow until the problem gets worse or the circuit is powered down and repaired. Protective devices such as fuses and breakers can be constructed so that when they fail or open they give an indication to the trained electrician or technician what type of fault caused it to operate.
