c




 

Impedance is the current limiting characteristic of a transformer and is expressed in percentage.
It is used for determining the interrupting capacity of a circuit breaker or fuse employed to
protect the primary of a transformer.
The impedance of the load is expressed in ohms, and the relationship between the current and the
voltage in the circuit is controlled by the impedances in the circuit. When a signal source, such as
our composite video output, sees a very low-impedance circuit, it produces a larger than intended
current; when it sees a very high-impedance circuit, it produces a smaller than intended current.
These mismatched impedances redistribute the power in the circuit so that less of it is delivered
to the load than the circuit was designed for--because the nature of the circuit is that it can't
simply readjust the voltage to deliver the same power regardless of the rate of current flow.
Imagine, riding in your car down the Interstate in first gear, flooring the gas pedal and going just
as fast as you can. It's obvious, as you watch the cars zip past, that no matter how much
horsepower you have under the hood, most of that horsepower isn't getting delivered to the road;
instead, a lot of it is burning up in the engine as excess heat, and if you keep this driving up for
long, you'll damage your engine. The same thing happens in an impedance mismatch between a
source and load; power isn't being transferred properly because the source circuit wasn't designed
to drive the kind of load it's connected to. In some electronic applications this will burn out
equipment.