Physicopoeia

This shows that a normal UK 13A plug fuse must be able to pass a current of 20 Amps indefinitely without melting. For it to melt in less than 1 second, there would need to be 80 Amps flowing through it! This underlines the fact that fuses are primarily fire-prevention devices: 80A is unlikely to cause a fire if it flows through an appliance for less than a second. By themselves, fuses are not meant to prevent fatal electric shocks: 80A flowing through a human for one second would be more or less guaranteed to kill them.

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