Reducing Heating in Circuits Flashcards
All 5 cards in this deck
What property must connecting wires have to reduce unwanted energy transfer?
Low resistance.
Give two ways of making the resistance of a connecting wire lower.
Make it thicker (larger cross-sectional area) and make it shorter.
Which metal is usually chosen for connecting wires and mains cables, and why?
Copper, because it is a very good conductor (low resistance), so less energy is dissipated as thermal energy.
True or false? Using a thicker wire increases the unwanted energy transfer to the surroundings.
False. A thicker wire has lower resistance, so less energy is dissipated as thermal energy.
True or false? For the same current, halving a wire's resistance halves the power dissipated in it.
True. , so power is proportional to resistance at constant current.