I'm trying to work my way through a "Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics" book, but they didn't address something I've seen as a given in even the most basic primers.
Why does short circuiting a battery do what it does? Say you have a 9 volt battery and you connect the terminals. The battery heats up and drains quickly. Is that just because the power needs to dissipate somewhere and doesn't have anywhere to go? If you put a low-value resistor in series with the terminals, why doesn't more-or-less the same thing happen? Or does it in some way I'm just not noticing.
If someone could shed some light on this issue, I'd appreciate it.
-Kyle
Why does short circuiting a battery do what it does? Say you have a 9 volt battery and you connect the terminals. The battery heats up and drains quickly. Is that just because the power needs to dissipate somewhere and doesn't have anywhere to go? If you put a low-value resistor in series with the terminals, why doesn't more-or-less the same thing happen? Or does it in some way I'm just not noticing.
If someone could shed some light on this issue, I'd appreciate it.
-Kyle