On a fine Saturday in the beginning of October, as usual, I am setting up for Christmas even before I set up for Halloween. As I struggle to untangle the wires of my cheap and somewhat retro Christmas lights I started to think about my physics journal and wondered what exciting topic I could talk about this week. Simultaneously thinking about physics I was also plugging in the Christmas lights. I began to admire my untangled, beautiful Christmas lights when all of a sudden I hear one of th
e miniature bulbs blow up and the rest of the lights lose there glow as well. Of course I am devastated because I spent so much time untangling those wires but I am also pleased because I realized that it was "physics in action." The cause of all the lights going out was either a short circuit or the lights are something called a "series circuit." The theory of a short circuit I easily canceled out because nothing else was plugged in or was on that would enable a blowout that would break the circuit. My Christmas lights are a series circuit which means that a continuous connection between all my lights has to be in effect in order for the current to flow. When one of my light's filament broke this caused a break in connection that is required for a series circuit to work. Since in a series circuit there is only a single pathway any break in the path would stop the flow of electrons and all the Christmas lights would go out. I did not want to find the broken bulb so I just hid the Christmas lights in the trash can. Shhhhh!
e miniature bulbs blow up and the rest of the lights lose there glow as well. Of course I am devastated because I spent so much time untangling those wires but I am also pleased because I realized that it was "physics in action." The cause of all the lights going out was either a short circuit or the lights are something called a "series circuit." The theory of a short circuit I easily canceled out because nothing else was plugged in or was on that would enable a blowout that would break the circuit. My Christmas lights are a series circuit which means that a continuous connection between all my lights has to be in effect in order for the current to flow. When one of my light's filament broke this caused a break in connection that is required for a series circuit to work. Since in a series circuit there is only a single pathway any break in the path would stop the flow of electrons and all the Christmas lights would go out. I did not want to find the broken bulb so I just hid the Christmas lights in the trash can. Shhhhh!
1 comment:
I don't know why, but your journals crack me up. The other one about your mom taking the picture, and the pose here. Super physics discussion too. That's the main part!
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