Maybe Canadian amps are bigger than USA amps ;-) OTOH, some induction hobs are allowed to temporarily surge past their rated continuous capacity. Maybe in the US, installed cabling to the appliances is not allowed to go over capacity for as long. I would think that would trip the breaker though. Maybe the electricians and engineers here can make a better hypothesis. There are a couple of things you might want to know about induction cooktops and ranges. The sum power of the hobs always exceeds the total capacity of the appliance. Usually pairs of hobs share power supplies and the hobs have a higher rating than the power supplies can make. I am looking at specifications for a "40 amp" Electrolux cooktop right now. I have no idea if it is the same as yours, but serves to illustrate. The hobs are rated at (continuous/boost) 2.4/3.4, 1.9/2.6, 2.5/3.8, and 1.5/1.9 kW. The continuous rating adds up to 8.3 kW, but Electrolux rates the whole cooktop at 7.7 kW. Did Electrolux make a mistake? No, the controls will cut power and limit the whole thing to 7.7 kW. There is no way you make all of that. The appliance limits itself to its rated capacity. Furthermore, the hobs are usually powered in pairs by a power supply. Two hobs will have one power supply. Three hobs will have two power supplies. Four hobs will have two power supplies and five will have three. If you know how they are paired, you can use your cooktop more effectively. If you want to be heating up that stockpot really fast at the same time your are making a roux, pick the small hob that is not linked to the biggest hob. If you don�t, the stockpot might slow down. The next thing you might notice is that the "boost capacity" of all the hobs adds up to a whopping 11.7 kW. The boost capacity is usually a temporary power output that cannot be sustained by the equipment. If it ran at that capacity, heat would build up in something, and smoke would come out. You probably cannot "boost" with the second hob going on the same power supply. Compare that to a resistance cooktop. The sum power of the hobs cannot exceed the rated capacity of the appliance because the hobs themselves are the only control over the power consumption, not some microprocessor.

"The breaker protects the appliances on the circuit, not the wiring." Not exactly. Depends on the circuit and the equipment which it supplies. In some cases, the overcurrent protection value is selected for the equipment, while the conductor size is also selected for the equipment. The rules for motors could result in a #12 being protected at 40 amperes in certain cases Examples are motors and air conditioning/refrigerating equipment. The protection is based on conductor size alone in the case of general purpose branch circuits in residences and many other applications. The NEC has many nuances and special cases that must be considered. In the case of the range, if the manufacturer of the range specifies a maximum of 40 amperes for the supply overcurrent protection, then the installation of the 40 amp breaker is correctly indicated-- and needed.

Again, it's not telling you squat about the wire you have...it's just telling if you use that gauge how much force you need to tighten the screw down with. Why do you think you have a problem? If you want to find out what gauge wire you have, you're going to have to take the panel cover off so you can see what's actually connected to the breaker. However, I seriously recommend you don't do so. Inside live electrical panels is not a place for those who don't know what they are doing.

If the device in fact is 10kw, then the calculation is 10,000/240 Volts = 41.66 amps. Without further instructions from the manufacturer, you can't load a circuit beyond 80% of capacity, which would say that you need at least a 52.1 amp breaker - which means a 60 amp circuit (unless you can find a 55 amp breaker for your panel). Wire sizes must be done acordingly, so you'll need 6 gauge wire to carry 60 amps. All of these calculations are rather pointless until you get the specific installation instructions from the manufacturer.