What does short circuit mean?

Answer 1

A short circuit condition is caused by the grounding of the circuit anywhere from the distribution point to the load of a circuit. This grounding causes a high rush of current because of a low resistance of this type of circuit. This high rush causes the over protection device to trip and interrupt the current flow.

Answer 2

A short circuit happens when the current withing a circuit is allowed to pass from one point to another, the path of the current having no or very low impedance (high conductance). A current will only from through one (or more) closed loop(s) within a circuit or, in other words, the current needs a low resistance path to travel through.

The ground of an electric circuit may refer to the point of an electric circuit, from which all voltages are measured. The ground is known to have zero voltage, and the voltage of any other point from the circuit is measured relatively to the ground. The ground is a convention, a notation, and any point from an electric circuit may be chosen as the ground (although usually some points may offer certain advantages when designing or computing electric circuits)

The ground in electronics may also refer to a direct connection to the earth, which serves as a path for the current to flow through when the circuit behaves differently than intended, mostly in order to save the life of the components within the circuit, which could broke (sometimes burn) when a high unwanted current flew through them.

Short circuit to ground may represent an error in the circuit design, where a certain point from the electric circuit scheme is erroneously connected to the chosen ground, or a direct connection to the earth ground, which could prevent the circuit from working by giving the current an alternate path (to the earthed ground) instead of the desired path (through the components).

Answer 3

Short circuit is when two phases or lines on the power circuit has be abruptly bridged, causing a protected electrical circuit to trip.