Shunt (electrical) called a "crowbar" as it is likened to dropping an actual crowbar across a set of bus bars (exposed electrical conductors). An ammeter shunt allows the measurement of current values too large to be directly measured by a particular ammeter. In this case the shunt, a manganin resistor of accurately known resistance, is placed in parallel with the moving coil galvanometer, thus all of the current to be measured will flow through it. In order not to disrupt the circuit, the resistance of the shunt is normally very low. The voltage drop across the shunt is proportional to the current
Conventional electrical unit in this way, and as such, represent a significant step towards using "natural" fundamental physics for practical measurement purposes. However, the conventional electrical units are unlike other systems of natural units in that some physical constants are not set to unity but rather set to fixed numerical values that are very close (but not precisely the same) to those in the common SI system of units. Four significant steps were taken in the last half century to increase the precision and utility of measurement units. In 1967 the Thirteenth General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defined the second of