In an electronic system we can have different components performing different jobs, and combined they form a circuit.
In a typical circuit we have a voltage source, and we have devices that have some utility.
The voltage source can be a battery or for example an Arduino board providing power.
Let’s say the voltage is 5V
. We have a positive pole, and a negative pole.
If we connect those 2 poles directly using a wire, we’re going to have a short circuit.
A short circuit is a very bad situation, and one of the most common causes of issues in electrical circuits, and in practice we take all sorts of precautions against this, because it can cause heavy damage to our devices and components, making them unusable.
Even in the case of a 1.5V battery, the amount of current flowing between the positive and negative poles can cause a fire (I do not recommend trying but this is a cool trick to light a fire when you forget the lighter in your camping trip).
Imagine what could happen with a larger battery. Some batteries (including the ones used in your cell phones) will explode if short-circuited.
Long story short, avoid short circuits in any possible way and pay attention.
More electronics tutorials:
- Arduino vs Raspberry Pi
- An introduction to Arduino
- The Arduino Uno rev 3 board
- The Arduino Uno WiFi rev 2 board
- Introduction to the Arduino Programming Language
- Milli Micro Nano Pico
- The Arduino MKR WiFi 1010
- Introduction to Electronics
- Electronics Basics: Analog vs digital
- Electronics Basics: Current
- Electronics Basics: Voltage
- Electronics Basics: Vcc, ground, ...
- Electronics Basics: Resistance
- Electronics Basics: Short Circuit
- Electronics Basics: Your first circuit
- Electronics Basics: Prototyping using breadboards
- Electronics Basics: using a multimeter
- Measuring voltage, current and resistance using a multimeter
- What to buy to get started with Arduino and Electronics
- Arduino project: blink a LED
- The Arduino built-in LED
- Breadboard Power Supply Module
- The Arduino Create Platform
- How to connect to a WiFi network using an Arduino
- How to run a Web Server on an Arduino