Fuses & Circuit Breakers
Physics: AQA GCSE Higher, topic 2.4.6
Fuses and Circuit Breakers
Fuses and circuit breakers protect us from electrical appliances by stopping the flow of electric current flow if it gets too high. This stops the appliance overheating.
Fuses
- Fuses contain a thin wire that melts if the current flowing through an appliance is too high.
- This breaks the circuit and stops the flow of electric current.
Circuit breakers
- Circuit breakers are special devices that switch off the flow of current if the current is higher than a certain value.
- Circuit breakers do the same job as fuses but can be used lots of times.
Test yourself on Fuses & Circuit Breakers
Which of these is not a property of circuit breakers?
What are the advantages of circuit breakers over fuses?
What are the advantages of circuit breakers over fuses?