Question

The essential requirements of a fuse wire are ___________.
A. High resistance and high melting point.
B. High Resistance and low melting point.
C. Low resistance and low melting point.
D. Low resistance and high melting point.

Answer 1

Hint: A fuse is a safety device used for protecting an electrical circuit from damage due to a short circuit connection or a sudden hike in the passing of electric current. The working of a fuse is it breaks a circuit and stops the flow to current from that part of the circuit.

Complete answer: The material used for making fuse wire includes copper, silver, zinc, aluminum, or alloys of the material to provide stable and required characteristics that are needed for the fuse.
The fuse material must be a material of low melting point as whenever a high current passes suddenly through a circuit the wires get heated up and resulting in the melting of the fuse wire. This process will result in a break in the electrical circuit, which in turn will save the electrical appliances from possible damage of the high current and voltage.
The wire must be of high resistance as when a huge current flows through the wire due to the high resistance value the wire gets heated up too quickly resulting in the melting of the fuse wire due to low melting point.
Thus, a fuse material must be made up of a material which has high resistance and low melting point.
Essential requirements for a fuse wire must have high resistance and low melting point.
So, the correct answer is “Option A”.

Note:
When compared to the load resistance, the fuse wire has lower resistance than the load resistance. But when the fuse wire is compared with the circuit wire of the same length it is seen that the fuse wire has high resistance. A fuse wire with a resistance of (0-5)$\Omega $ is considered as a good fuse wire.