Blog 10: Circuits

Usually, when I go to bed, I am soothed asleep by the melodic humming of my air conditioner.  The other night however, right as I was falling asleep, I was startled awake when my air conditioner, along with the other electrical appliances in my room, such as my night light, mysteriously shut off.  I curled into the fetal position under my sheets, deathly afraid of the silence and darkness that penetrated my room.  The situation seemed all too much like a scary horror movie.  That was when physics saved the day, or night rather.  I recalled what we had learned in class about short circuits.  When a circuit has no resistance, too much current flows through, causing the circuit to become extremely hot.  This could be extremely detrimental to a house, and could easily result in a fire.  In order to prevent this, circuit breakers are installed in houses with the purpose of "breaking" a circuit when too much current is flowing through it.  I decided to investigate for myself, and sure enough, the circuit breaker switch for my room had flipped. I flipped it back to its original position, and when I returned to my room, all my appliances were back on.  Also, the lights in the other rooms of my house still functioned, suggesting that my house is wired in parallel rather than in series.