Short circuit a battery?

Question

I was in my garage and I got a pair of my channel lock pliers and picked up a battery(AA) so that the pliers where holding it longways and the metal was touching the negative and positive at the same time. And I noticed the pliers didn't get hot put the battery got really hot. I was to scared to see what would happen if I held it like that so I let it go and asked you guys. What would happen? Try it.

Answer 1

Imagine that your pliars were a flashlite bulb.  When you make contact with both ends of a battery you get a light ... which is from a very hot tiny wire.

(don't touch!)

The pair of pliars is so heavy that the same energy flow that makes the tiny wire element glow ... a light ... flows through the pliars .. but they are so massive you can't feel the change in temperature.

Your battery tells you this is happening by getting warm. It is working much harder trying to heat the pliars than it does lighting a bulb.

Answer 2

The pliers were large enough to carry the current that was being put out by the battery.  If you shorted out the batter with a smaller object that wouldn't carry all the current, the object would have gotten hot.  What would have happened if you had left the pliers on the battery that way.  Possible the battery could explode so you made a wise decision and please, don't tell others to try it because if the battery does explode, you could cause someone a hot of pain.  The size of the explosion depends on the amount of moisture in the battery and how well the casing is sealed.

Answer 3

A battery that's carrying way too much current will get hot enough to boil and vaporize its moist innards.  The manufacturers generally include a little vent somewhere so that the steam can be safely conducted outside the battery case without danger of it exploding.  Finish short-circuiting it and see what happens.  

Answer 4

the AA does not have enough current to make your channel locks hot, but it does have enough to cause the battery to break open and leak electrolytic paste all over the place.