Question

What is the difference between overloading and short circuiting.
please explain in detail.

Answer 1

Short Circuit occurs when neutral wire and live wire touch accidentally providing a very low resistance path for current.A large current flows through neutral wire and as we know that H=I2Rt,So Heating effect is very high.This may cause a fire.
Overloading of the circuit occurs when large Number of appliances are connected in a single socket.This causes a large amount of current to flow and the fuse may blow off.This is less dangerous than Short circuits
The short circuit means the voltage at the fault points reduces to zero and the large current starts flowing through the circuit whereas in the overloaded condition the load greater than the suitable value are applied to the system.
The voltage at the short circuit decreases to zero, whereas in the overloaded condition the voltages reduce, but it cannot be zero.
During the short circuit, the resistance of the path of current becomes low due to which the heavy current flow through the circuit whereas in overload condition the magnitude of the current is high but appreciably low as compared to short circuit current.
The short circuit occurs in the system when the neutral and the live wire comes in contact with each other, whereas overload occurs when the number of electrical equipment connects to the same socket