Timeline for Help me understand this circuit - unexpected LED behaviour
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 28, 2021 at 23:59 | comment | added | MG_ | @Justme thanks – this is super succinct. | |
| May 28, 2021 at 13:40 | comment | added | ilkkachu | @MG_, "prefers" a more "direct" route in the sense of using it more, not in the sense of using it only. But with the closed switch being a practically zero-resistance wire, the proportional distribution (or well, inversely proportional to the resistances) means that practically all current flows through the switch. | |
| May 27, 2021 at 19:38 | comment | added | Elliot Alderson | @MG_ No, it's not quite right to say that the current will prefer to run the most direct route. Current will flow through all available routes, but the amount of current in a given route is inversely proportional to the resistance of that route. | |
| May 27, 2021 at 19:26 | comment | added | Circuit fantasist | @MG_, Exactly, "the current always prefers to run the most direct route". This is an electrical concept but we can see it everywhere around us in its non-electrical manifestations where water, cars, people, animals, etc. behave this way... | |
| May 27, 2021 at 19:01 | comment | added | Circuit fantasist | @Justme, The LED will just burn out... | |
| May 27, 2021 at 13:43 | comment | added | Justme | You can think it as a piece of wire that shorts out the LED, i.e. creates a direct route for the current so none of the current can go through the LED any more. | |
| May 27, 2021 at 12:48 | comment | added | MG_ | “Bypasses” is interesting! I'm trying to understand what that could mean... Could we say the current prefers to run the most direct route? Or is it about the current prefers to run the higher power loads? | |
| May 27, 2021 at 11:25 | history | answered | Justme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |