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Lightning Rods and Household Electrical Circuits

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4) a) What is the purpose of the lightning rod and how does it work?
b) Why is the car interior a safe place to be during a thunderstorm? Explain.
5) a) In a typical household electrical circuit are the appliances connected in series or in parallel? Why? Explain.
b) What are the purpose and role of a circuit breaker in a household circuit?
c) How is the circuit breaker connected to the rest of the circuit: in series or in parallel?
d) How does the circuit breaker work?
e) What are the purpose and role of a fuse in an appliance?
f) How does the fuse work?
g) Sketch a diagram of a household circuit consisting of a circuit breaker, a TV set, a dishwasher, and a computer.
h) If the TV set draws 150 W of power, the dishwasher 1500 W of power and the computer 100 W of power, will a typical 15 A circuit breaker trip if they operate simultaneously on one line? Explain why.

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Solution Summary

This solution discusses the purpose of lightning rods and various questions involving household electrical circuits.

Solution Preview

a) The lightning rod (also called the lighting conductor) is a protective device that protects property and persons from damage caused by lightning. It consist of low resistance metal conductor with one end extending above the tallest part of a building (assuming it's a building we want to protect), and the other end buried into the earth below the building. When lightning strikes the building the rod provides a safe passage for the charges to be conducted to the ground where there are neutralized.

b) The interior of the car is safe for two reasons: first, the metal body of the car is a better conductor than the body of the person sitting in the car. If lightning strikes the car, metal body of the car acts like some kind of shield and prevent the charges from getting to the person sitting in the car. Second, the rubber tires of the car are insulators (this is not really a big reason given that the person will normally wear shoes with rubber soles)

5) a) The appliances ...

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