Knowns and unknows for electrical

There are a few things that I feel comfortable with in electrical:
I feel confidant in finding opens, and that is going to look like a cut wire. You're not going to have any current flow in the circuit.You're not going to have anything at the load on the power side or ground.

High Resistance Voltage Drops are going to be a green corroded wire somewhere in the circuit. You're going to go to your load and not have something close to 12V on the power side and/or 0V on the ground side.

Here's what I need practice on:
Short to powers have always confused me. I understand that it's going to bypass a switch, and an example is you switch something off on the dash but it stays on. What to do after you identify that it's a short to power is where I get fuzzy. I understand that you use an amp clamp in the circuit, but I'm not really clear on the trouble shooting steps.

Short to grounds are a little simpler but still something I don't have a lot of experience with. I understand that it is going to blow a fuse, and that you should use a fuse that glows in it's place (ie a headlight).

Electrical Spring

This week has been a refresher on electrical. The biggest thing I took away from the video on fluke meters was about diode testing. A diode is a one way check valve that provides circuit protection. It' If you get a Out of limit reading on your meter for both directions of the diode then you have an open diode. If your meter reads voltage(~.5V) for both directions of the diode then you have a shorted diode. A very important component that has a diode is the alternator. It can fail if you switch the polarity of the battery by putting the cables backwards or jumping a car incorrectly. A faulty alternator diode can destroy a ECM since there is no longer circuit protection. Another thing I took away from was learning that a solenoid actuates something else. It converts electrical energy to mechanical energy that allows work to be done. An example of this is a magnetic switch which is exactly what a relay is.

Reason for the voltage drop resulting in a dim tail light.

Watched the Fluke instructional video on DVOMs.