Every electrical circuit must include a "load'' (something to use the electricity
coming from the source). Without this load, the battery would attempt to deliver
its entire power supply from one pole to another. This is called a "short circuit."
All this electricity would take a short cut to ground and cause a great amount
of damage to other components in the circuit by developing a tremendous amount
of heat. This condition could develop sufficient heat to melt the insulation on
all the surrounding wires and reduce a multiple wire cable to a lump of plastic
and copper.
