Article View: sci.electronics
Article #11422Re: why is one prong on plug wider than the other?
From: Garrett Meiers
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 00:36
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 00:36
21 lines
1357 bytes
1357 bytes
mlevin@husc8.harvard.edu (Michael Levin) writes: > I am holding a plug, which is supposed to plug into a wall socket. >One of the two metal prongs is wider, so that the plug only fits one >way - not if you turn it over. Why is this? I thought the whole point >of AC was that the poles change sinusoidally; so how can one be >different from the other? Please direct replies to In older metal appliances, before the 3rd grounding pin, one of the 120 lines were attached to the case of the appliance to be used as a ground. Back then there was no standard side of the 120 to be used as ground so either one was used.. The reason the plug became polarized and was wired with one prong being the ground, so you couldnt touch both sides of 120 at the same time by touching a refridge and a toaster at the same time... Garrett Meiers to touch a refridgerator and a toaster that
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<1992Oct13.003653.5028@edsi.plexus.COM>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!think.com!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!cserver!edsi!gmeiersReferences:
<1992Oct8.205505.16186@husc3.harvard.edu>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Newsgroups: sci.electronics Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!think.com!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!cserver!edsi!gmeiers From: gmeiers@edsi.plexus.COM (Garrett Meiers) Subject: Re: why is one prong on plug wider than the other? Organization: Enterprise Data Systems Incorporated, Appleton WI Distribution: usa Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 00:36:53 GMT Message-ID: <1992Oct13.003653.5028@edsi.plexus.COM> References: <1992Oct8.205505.16186@husc3.harvard.edu> Lines: 21