DrewE wrote:
BFL13 wrote:
LScamper wrote:
Long cord lowers load not increase it.
High altitude equal less air but same amount of fuel equal rich mixture.
Years ago I didn't understand when you told me current limiting was a way of keeping current constant. I thought you needed a way to keep the current up too. Later I got that.
So now I an stuck on how a longer cord (more R?) is less load.
Your heater or whatever on its own has a resistance R. Your longer cord adds a bit, for the resistance seen by the generator of R + a bit. Since the generator output voltage is supposed to be constant, by ohm's law the current (and hence power) is lower.
More generally, for a constant voltage source, the applied resistance is inversely related to the load. The minimum load is an open circuit, with no power being consumed; the maximum theoretical load is a short circuit with infinite power being consumed...but of course in real life you can't supply or dissipate infinite power, so something somewhere gives out, possibly with spectacular results.
But "loaded voltage" is not constant.
So why would a cord that does add R not add more R if it were longer?
Assuming that more R = more "load".
