gcsescience.com 41 gcsescience.com
The Heating Effect of Current.
When we looked at Ohm's Law,
it was mentioned that a component usually gets
hotter
when a current
flows through it.
The wires which link the components of a circuit
also get hotter with increasing current.
The more current passing through the
wire, the hotter
it gets.
A very
hot wire might melt or set fire to
the insulation
which covers it.
A fuse is a
thin piece of wire which is manufactured to melt
when a certain current (called its
rating) passes
through it.
In this way the fuse protects the rest of the circuit
from the damage caused by too high a current.
To find the reason why
current has a heating effect,
we must look at the resistance of the
wire itself.
Headings Mains Electricity Search Questions ![]()
gcsescience.com Contents Index Quizzes gcsescience.com
Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.