What is the Current in Ampere Meter?

Ampere Meter Basic Concept: What is the Current in Ammeter ?

Basic Electrical Engineering Interview Question Series: An ammeter is connected in series with a 50 ohms and 100 ohms loads. If there is a short path across the 100 ohms load, what is the value of current in ampere meter?

Short Answer: 4.4 Amperes as current is only passing through the 50 ohms load and ampere meter neglecting the 100 ohms load due to short path.

Explanatory Answer:

We know that current always choose a short and easiest way to flow through it. In other words, current always select the low resistance path in parallel circuit and if there is short passage, it will ignore the load connected in the circuit.

The same will happens in the above case i.e. current will ignore the 100 ohms load as there is a short path with almost zero resistance. So the flow of current is shown by blue line with arrow from the source to the load and ampere meter. In other words, current will flow through the ampere meter and 50 ohms load bypassing the 100 ohms load due to parallel short path across it.

To know the value of flowing current through ammeter and 50 ohms load, we may use the basic Ohm’s law as follow.