Mounir,
The reason why the fuse wire blows is simple, there is
only certain amount of electrons that can travel in a wire
with a certain dimension.
That's called resistance.
When you try to squeeze in to many electrons...BOOM, there
goes the wire.
Right, due to the heat created. If its to thin, heat will
be produced and a fire might be the worst result.
And that's because of it's resitance. We tend to take the
low resistance of a
conductor for granted, but I once experienced how
important it is. I took an
electric lawn mower into a field but had to have a long
extension because it
was so far from the outlet. Between the wet grass and the
long extension it
just didn't have the 'poop' to do the job.
Sorry to be changing gears here, but it's only a partial
switch. I still say it's a
stretch to say that there's no difference between a fuze
and a resistor. If
the characteristic that is in common is the resistance,
then a wire is also a
resistor.
The reason for that is that a real wire won't easily melt.
No, the reason for that is that if the wire is larger there
is less
I x I x R, a.k.a. power which in this case is mostly heat.
Switch Hitter Jim
