Question

Suppose you are using a multimeter (one designed to measure a range of voltages, currents, and resistances) to measure current in a circuit and you inadvertently leave it in a voltmeter mode. What effect will the meter have on the circuit? What would happen if you were measuring voltage but accidentally put the meter in the ammeter mode?

Answer 1

Voltmeter has very high resistance so that when connected in parallel between a point and ground potential it takes in very less power because of the low current passing through it. If you connect it in series that would make your circuit transformed totally, draws very less current than normal and load cannot be supplied with required power

care must be taken while measuring voltage using multimeter. It must be ensured that multimeter is selected in voltage mode before measuring voltage between two points. If by mistake, multimeter is selected in current mode and we measure the voltage between two points, this simply means we are connecting ammeter in parallel which means high current through the meter as well as circuit. Modern Multimeter has inbuilt fuse, which will burn in this case. But for personal safety, it must be ensured that proper selection in Multimeter is done before the measurement