Reducing Heating in Circuits Flashcards

All 3 cards in this deck

How does using wires with lower resistance reduce unwanted energy transfer?

Fewer collisions between electrons and lattice ions, so less energy is dissipated as thermal energy in the wires.

Give two ways of making a connecting wire have a lower resistance.

Use a thicker wire (larger cross-sectional area) and a shorter wire; also use a material that is a better conductor, e.g. copper.

Using $P = I^2 \times R$, why do low-resistance cables waste less energy for the same current?

Power dissipated is proportional to resistance, so halving $R$ halves the power wasted as heat.