How come sometimes you have to turn the prongs on the cord upside down to fit into the sockets? It doesn't seem to be the outlet, because I can plug in other things w/o turning their prongs upside down; yet it doesn't seem to be the prongs because I can plug them into different outlets w/o turning them upside down either?
2006-08-26 08:01:15 · 4 answers · asked by rena2169 2 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Other - Electronics
Quite a while back, the electrical industry changed things to make a "polarized" plug. On a polarized plug, one spade (the things which plug into the wall outlet) is wider than the other so it will only go one way into the wall outlet. This was done so the "hot" side would be connected to the correct wire going to the device at the other end of the cord without having the 3rd wire for a ground. Look at the outlet and you will see the slots are slightly different sizes. Look at the plug which you had to turn over and you will see it likely has different sizes as well. Some things make no difference which side is the hot side so the the plug does not have to be polarized and will fit either way. The idea is to connect the hot side to the on/off switch instead of the neutral side to reduce the possibility of an electrical shock if there is a fault in the wiring, hence the polarized plug to insure the hot side of the line went to the switch. IIt does not prevent an electrical shock, but reduces the liklihood the hot side will come in contact with the rest of the device and become a shock hazard.
2006-08-26 08:21:07 · answer #1 · answered by rowlfe 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
there are two ways that you can wire up a 3 wire outlet. one is with the wide side or polarized side to the left or the second way is with it facing on the right. Now sometimes you have plugs that do not have a large and small side so they can plug in either way. Yet is you have a 3 prong the large side will always be on the left as long as the hole for the prong is on the bottom.
2006-08-26 08:22:35 · answer #2 · answered by single_daddy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you look at your outlet on the wall most of them I would have to wager 75%+ have a "longer" hole on the left side and the smaller hole on the right side and sometimes it is very hard to notice it.
And with the equipment you are pluging in if you look at the prongs on some equipment one of the prongs are alittle wider and more square whereas the other prong is a little skinier and rounder.
This is because for certain electronics the manufacturer wants to make sure you are pluging hot into hot and neutral into neutral. Whereas with electronics it doens't matter because insdei the electronics there is ussally a full wave rectifier circuit.
2006-08-26 12:09:38 · answer #3 · answered by sexylittlemisstweetybird83 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
these are called "polarized plugs" The neutral wide will only plug into the neutral side of the socket. If you look, you can see that one side is wider.
2006-08-26 08:07:40 · answer #4 · answered by mxzptlk 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋