🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec29.160117.12068@cbfsb.cb.att.com> medha@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (keshav.havnurkar) writes:
>Hi
>  I am curious to know why some countries have 110V AC supply
>and some 220V AC as their main line voltage ?
>Any paticular reason for selecting any one number ? Is there
>any talk of standardizing this like SI syatem of measurement ?

Well, some countries have 240V power, too.  And Japan has 100V.  There
used to be 136V service in a couple of South American countries, and
I know there is still 208V service here in the US (coming from a single
leg of a 240V three-phase line).

Even in the US, there is 120V power, 110V power, 115V power, and 117V power,
all standards used in different locations.  Of course, because of the voltage
drop from the distribution transformer to your outlet, in some locations
there might be 115V at the pole and 110V at your outlet.  This happens a
lot in rural areas where the distances between farms is fairly great and
they may share a transformer.

Frequency is even more fun.  Some countries have 50 Hz power.  Other 
countries have 60 Hz power.  In some places you can even get 25 Hz 
power (which used to be very popular for large rotating machinery, but 
which has fallen into disuse).

Confused enough?  Wait, it gets better when you start talking about actually
trying to plug things in.  While the frequency and voltage is pretty much
constant across Europe, the plugs used in the UK are different from those
used in Switzerland, which are different from those used in France.  Of
course, they all differ from those used in the US, and those used in
Australia.

You want standardization?  Sure, we've got lots of standardization.  I've
got my standards, you've got yours, and everybody else has their own, too.
I don't see this changing much in the next hundred years or so, but we
can hope.
--scott