Question

A 120-volt household circuit has a circuit breaker that opens the circuit if it draws more than 12 amps of current. What is the minimum amount of resistance in the circuit required to keep the circuit breaker from activating

Answer 1

The minimum resistance required in a 120-volt household circuit to prevent a circuit breaker rated at 12 amps from activating is 10 ohms, as calculated using Ohm's Law (R = V/I).

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the minimum amount of resistance in the household circuit that is required to keep the circuit breaker from activating, we can apply Ohm's Law, which states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points and inversely proportional to the resistance between them. The formula is I = V/R, where I is the current, V is the voltage, and R is the resistance.

The circuit breaker will activate if the current exceeds 12 amps. Therefore, to prevent this, the current must be at or below 12 amps. The voltage of the household circuit is given as 120 volts. Using Ohm's Law rearranged to solve for resistance, we have R = V/I. Plugging in the values, we get R = 120 volts / 12 amps = 10 ohms. Thus, the minimum resistance required to keep the circuit breaker from tripping is 10 ohms.