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AC Polarity Explained - Electricity 101
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- Опубликовано: 28 фев 2021
- Why do some outlets have a larger slot? Some plugs have one bigger prong, but why don't they all of them? Do you think you know? I received hundreds of requests to make this video & I hope you enjoy seeing the mystery solved & the question ANSWERED! Why do Polarized Plugs Exist?
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Due to factors beyond the control of Silver Cymbal, I cannot guarantee against improper use or unauthorized modifications of this information. Silver Cymbal assumes no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video. Use this information at your own risk. Silver Cymbal recommends safe practices when working on machines and or with tools seen or implied in this video. Due to factors beyond the control of Silver Cymbal, no information contained in this video shall create any expressed or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage, or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or from the information contained in this video is the sole responsibility of the user and not Silver Cymbal.
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Me, while watching this: *laughs in european*
Thank you
So if you have a non-polarized plug with no ground even though you don't need to know, how would you be able to tell the hot and the neutral lines? Also I was told that non-polarized plugs have regulators that even if it is flowing in the wrong direction kind of like a trains point crossing or trains siding switches the line before it reaches the devices to provide the right flow.
ruclips.net/video/1uEmX5XClPY/видео.html
@@EliteMemes. +
That is until you find out that some jackass has actually wired some of the receptacles in your home backwards 🤷♂️
@@randybobandy9828 obviously that didn't stop anybody here....
@@randybobandy9828 it was inspected. Inspectors don't test every outlet. They only look in the panel. It's not like it's a big deal... I fixed it.
@@Krankie_V same thing happened to me. Ruined a TV too.
@@Z3rostar sucks! I checked all the stuff out myself. I guess a previous homeowner replaced one receptacle and connected it wrong.
@@randybobandy9828 You can also be renting from a landlord who could possibly be hiring under-qualified/overworked electricians.
This is the reason why every switch here in germany switches BOTH hot and neutral.
The voltage in germany is close to 240 volts instead of the 120 in the US. Makes the added safety even more necessary
@@lincolnhunt9558 European plugs are also never polarized.
@@Iisakki3000
Are You sure?
@@janpf0624 In most counties yes they are not polarized but it does look like at least in France they are polarized. In my country (Finland) I have never seen a polarized plug.
@@Iisakki3000
Better.
France, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have so-called "French plugs" - CEE 7/5 sockets and CEE 7/6 plugs.
The socket with the "ground" pin upside, has the "hot" hole on the left and the "neutral" on the right.
This was incredibly well explained and straight to the point. Kudos!
I’ll watch any electric videos you have like this. Electricity is something I’ve never learned and it freaks me out. Would love a layman electrician series.
My boyfriend said your attitude about electricity is the right one. The first electrician he worked for told him, "Once you think you have electricity figured out it will kill you". He retired in 2018 after 36 years working around high voltages. He's still here and says he still hasn't figued it out.
Legends say, the reason one of the holes are smaller is because the outlet is winking at you for its entire lifespan
In the case of the adapters, consider also that they typically use a transformer to bring the input voltage closer to the desired output before employing a rectifier and voltage regulators. Using a transformer, the voltage difference across it is balanced whether the input is balanced or unbalanced. A transformer that divides 120v AC by 10 outputs 6v 0deg and 6v 180deg for a total of 12v AC
Hence, no need to polarize.
It would only need to be polarized if it were untransformed and used a halfass rectifier.
These videos are fantastic! I really appreciate that your channel is strictly about information, and the videos are done as soon as the point has been demonstrated. Thank you for all that you do 🙂.
I've wondered this my whole life, have even tried researching this in the past. Your video is the first one that actually makes sense for me!
Normally, lamps with standard A19 type screw-in bulbs energize the contact at the bottom of the lampholder, rather than the threaded part which is neutral. Having a standard incandescent lamp reversed would still work, but it would also leave you exposed to potential shock from touching the threaded part of the holder that sticks out, even when switched off.
That is true
MarcBerm, thank you, I was just about the mention that same thing. And by the way, I have been "bitten" by a lamp that was wired incorrectly with the screw part as hot and that is where I learned about polarized plugs. Lol!
@@jimturpin The same happened to me when I was a kid, scared the shit out of me and threw out the lamp thinking it was faulty. Now I remember that that power socket had the live and neutral backwards!
Make sure power is off from the switch before unscrewing it.
If possible always shut down electricity in the whole house
In 1940, when my childhood home was built, the switched out the neutrals. I found that out at 15 years old, when I went to replace the porcelain light in the basement and received quit a jolt from the "Hot" wire. Intrigued so much so, that when I graduated High school in 1980, I started working as an Electrician's helper. Forty One years later? I'm still at it. Yes and I've been shocked many times since lol.
I love electric shocks.
Nicely done, I’m a 40 yr electrician. Explained well for the general public👍🏼
Thanks 👍
“I have this very illegal adapter” killed me 😂, clicking this video I no longer have plausible deniability when the electronic police call 😆
This was a new safety measure you saw in the 70s
The homes that were built in the late 70s , 1977 and after , were really modern
They had lots of new features like polarized outlets and grounded outlets and ground fault circuit interrupter breakers for the kitchens the bathrooms the laundry areas all outside outlets and even for the basement
This was a huge step forward in safety
If you go to a house that was built in the 50s or 60s many times what you see is two prong outlets with no ground and fuses
What about a house in 2020, they also don't have groundmost of the time.
@@Muxik4k all houses built in the 2000s MUST have grounded outlets and GFCI outlets outside, in the bathrooms, basement, laundry and kitchen
Your videos are already normally very good, but this one is simply understanding and one of your best!
Very nice of you to say. It means a lot because I was "shocked" at how how much effort this one took, I had fun doing it but it took me forever. Glad you liked it.
“Little is live”
Unless the box was wired up by Uncle Grandad
Little is alive
I live for ever then
And polarized is for appliances with a switch. Now im smarter.
Thanks for that!
Actually alternating current flows both ways, alternating between flowing one way and the other. No, it's not the lower voltage that wall warts provide, it's the fact that converting one AC voltage to another requires a transformer of some sort (even switching power supplies use them), and that provides galvanic isolation. Simply put, what comes out the other end of a transformer is a separate circuit, and connecting it to ground does nothing. That could hold true for the secondary of the transformer on the pole too. It's been a very long time since ground return was used, and never for power distribution. If it was never connected to an earth ground, it would be impossible to electrocute yourself by using power tools in a damp basement or touching a water faucet. And now that inexpensive plastics are ubiquitous, it's cheap and easy to make all appliances double-insulated.
One of the big reasons why our house wiring is so arcane is because shaving pennies off the price of everything has been paramount. Split phase wiring was developed to save builders money; if we didn't have it, the idea of a "neutral" and "hot" wouldn't exist. Without getting too deep into the idiosyncrasies of split-phase, we'd be better off without it. With most of the world using ~240VAC for home wiring, we could easily transition to single-voltage AC homes, and bring something neat to replace Harvey Hubbell's second invention. Not having a grounded center tap eliminates much of the hazard in one fell swoop. And because everything has a microcontroller in it, it's about time we leverage them in home power to open up a whole realm of new possibilities.
What do you think those possibilities would be?
Stringer, you have touched on a subject I have wondered about for decades, and get conflicting info on the internet, electricians, and other people who claim electrical knowledge. The heart of the misunderstanding is in your statement "if it was never connected to an earth ground, it would be impossible to electrocute yourself using power tools in a damp basement." That has always been my understanding which begs the question, why is the neutral connected to ground in the first place? To avoid frying your home in the event of a lightning strike seems to be the accepted wisdom. But the chances of that happening are remotely slim for most homes (and I think could be avoided by attaching a lightning rod to your home). Yet the chance of frying your body touching power tools, or using electrical devices while in the bathtub or similar damp places seems a lot more likely to kill people than frying your home. And could be avoided completely by not tying the neutral to ground.
@@SirDella the first, most obvious application would be power outlets that detected a wide variety of wiring faults, and could be reprogrammed in the field to detect and respond to even more. Smart power outlets could by default leave the outlets powered off, turning on power only when it detects a suitable load. Small children with probing fingers would be safe, and parents wouldn't need to buy outlet covers or remember to put them back.
The most exciting use IMO would be in allowing unorthodox wiring schemes safely. In the UK many kitchens have an inherently unsafe ring circuit, relying entirely on plug fuses to protect them. Smart outlets could monitor the loads at every part of the circuit, and if someone plugged in an appliance that draws more power than the circuit can handle at that place, a phone app could tell them which outlet they could use at full power, or even provide reduced power to the appliance at that outlet.
With electric cars becoming more and more popular, more homeowners will be faced with the choice of upgrading their home service drop to accommodate the very high power draws that recharge cars faster, and learning to live with what a 15A circuit can provide. Rather than add more full-time capacity to the grid, a smart panel could budget the same 100A circuit that most homes have to make sure that large loads don't overlap, while still allowing 99% of convenience. So you could get home to a house, plug in your electric car, cook a meal on your induction stovetop, run a load of laundry, and rather than need another 100A to charge the car, a smart panel would monitor your usage and deliver full power to charging the car after other loads weren't in use.
Right now, so-called "solar generators" are using microcontrollers instead of fuses to protect their circuits from overload. If you try to draw too much power, or apply too much charging voltage, the device simply shuts down that circuit and gives an error code. When the problem is cleared, it reverts to working normally with no fuses to replace or breakers to reset. If you have one of these, think about how it would be to have your whole home working like that.
@@StringerNews1 About the plug protection, I have plugs that have a mechanism that requires both prongs to be inserted at the same time to unlock, it can be bypassed obviously but a toddler figuring that out is unlikely. As a bonus, it makes a satisfying click when plugging something in.
I like the idea for electric cars, tesla chargers soon will do something similar but with the entire grid, not taking the home appliances into account. One could just set a low priority to the car socket and done, nice
@@kimstockdale632 it's important to remember that technology has improved greatly over the centuries since we first discovered electricity. Equally important is to recognize that change (or lack thereof) isn't usually driven by the availability of those improvements. The people who built your house, and the company that delivers your mains electricity are motivated primarily by profit, not safety. That we have any safety provisions at all is because consumers stood up to Big Business and demanded change. Unfortunately that commitment to consumer rights has wavered as political tides turned. And the compromises that we have had aren't the best that could have been done, not by a long shot.
Lightning is more prevalent than you think. I wouldn't discount the importance of lightning and static protection, just the efficacy of the century-old methods. The other stated reason, protection against high-voltage primary wires falling onto lower voltage secondary wires is also something that can be addressed by other methods. Grounding was a simple solution for simple times when metals were the most common substance for making durable goods. Although metal appliances haven't gone away entirely, you're more likely to see metal that's insulated by durable epoxy paint, ceramic powder coating and vinyl overlays. Home plumbing is also insulated with plastics, more for cost and thermal insulation, but the end result is that it's a lot harder to touch ground in living areas. IMO we should use this to our advantage, and move deliberately toward insulation and not grounding to prevent electrical shocks.
Worth noting is that 3-phase power is distributed (and consumed in industrial settings) in a balanced 3-wire configuration commonly called "delta." Delta power lines have been struck by lightning, but in part of the very high voltages, and because there's no path to ground in a delta circuit, disturbance to customers down the line is minimal. Local pole-mounted feeder lines at voltages of 7200V and greater start at a power substation as 3-phase delta, which goes to businesses that need 3-phase, and branch out into unbalanced single-phase that is then converted to 120/240V split phase by pole mounted transformers. It all goes wrong when the utility saves a buck by using the same common wire as the return for the primary high voltage circuit and the low voltage split phase neutral. Essentially the utility is connecting your home to all of the risks and none of the benefits of its high voltage distribution system (the one most likely to be hit by lightning) and puts the onus on the consumer to safely ground _their_ system!
It wouldn't take much to switch to balanced 2-wire power right now in North America. While I wouldn't advise making toast in the bathtub under any circumstance, but for my money, isolation and insulation will keep more people safe from the real hazards that they face in 2021 than earth grounding can. Education will be needed to make the change. I've had people ask me to flip a wall switch because they were holding a glass of water, and in their minds they could get electrocuted somehow. People need to be better educated.
Me an Australian who has different outlets and still watches this:
Lol same but in a different country
Lol even I'm from India and still watching this ☺
You are not alone. Sydneysider here.
Same (but i'm brazilian)
😆
What I learned, you have illegal contraband and a tesla coil. You're my Hero! Keep up the great vids
@@HelloKittyFanMan. Thank god you are here to point this stuff out Mr kitty litter
This is the best explanation I've ever heard about polarized plugs. Thank you.
The video almost answered the question. It is for switched (not always on) devices to reduce how much of the appliance has a voltage potential above ground when it is off. This reduces the chances of a short when it is off if something is damaged downstream of the switch. Thid is safer since you are more likely to be around an electrical device (appliance) when it is turned on, and therefore more likely to notice a fire, etc. from it. For phone chargers and Christmas lights, etc. that are always on, there is no safety benefit of them being polarized as they will be hot all the time they are plugged into an outlet that has power.
It also has nothing to do with the direction current flows as this AC power, meaning current is vibrating in and out of both sides of the outlet.
One slot is bigger to frustrate the living hell out of you every time you try to plug it in.
At least it's not like USB that will insert on the third attempt
@@thenasadude6878 yeah lol
@@thenasadude6878 *laughs in USB-C*
I don't know why I'm watching this even though I have a different outlet at home but dam i really did learn something new today. Keep it up this was really interesting. 👍
this _very illigal_ adapter is build-in in every european plug, as they don't have polarized plugs at all.
we dont need them, our plugs are safe enough without
@@jacklewis100 weird to read that, while France has a polarized mechanical design and even a recommendation for the polarity, it is totally legal to wire it the other way around.
@@jacklewis100 Nope, the EU plug fits in nealy every socket without polarization.
To be honest the North American plugs are so bad designed. I can‘t understand why this hasn‘t been changed yet.
that is because every outlet in Europe (at least Austria and Germany) is GFCI and AFCI protected. in the US only wet areas are GFCI protected (bathroom and kitchen outlets)
@@Sparks0001 UK plugs are huge and bulky... totally not convenient when i.e your laptop mains power cord need to stowed away in a laptop bag...
This video gives lots of good advice. If I was making this video myself I would have added additional example with a standard light bulb socket and explained that the screw part is neutral while the button at the bottom of the socket is hot. If your lamp cord is not polarized then it’s random and the screw part might be hot. I was recently shocked when I touched the base of a light bulb. It turns out that the fixture was wired backwards and hot was swapped with neutral. After this experience I created a test rig to test light sockets. I found that about half the fixtures I had tested were backwards. This was across three different houses.
Jesus! Fire the electrition immediately!
Most of Europe's plugs are so much simpler. It doesn't matter what side you plug it in as long as it fits in.
"Polarity" here is misused, if only for simplicity's sake. Polarity only applies to DC (direct current) which is how electricity is stored in batteries where you have a positive, + terminal and a negative, - terminal.
AC (alternating current) is what we have available at our outlets in the walls. In the United States, it is roughly 120 volts AC at 60Hz. In most cases.
In other words, it measures 120V (there's an even deeper explanation of what the voltage REALLY measures, depending on what instant in time you measure it, and another deep dive into how you get 120 volts for most of the outlets and lighting circuits in your home, and 240 volts for your heating, air conditioning, stove and dryer all from ONE wire delivered to the power pole, or buried power source if you're so fortunate, outside your home), but switches poles, or polarity, 60 times per second.
@@godzillafirebox7765 oh all right, thank you for informing me! So far I have only used DC so that is why I barely know anything about AC. I can delete the last sentence of my comment. I look forward to working with AC in the future!
@@godzillafirebox7765 The plugs are widely called polarized plugs. It is not misuse.
@@okaro6595 There is electrical polarity and connector polarity. We each speak of the other. In other words, I agree with what you just said here 100%, and still stand by my statements regarding electrical polarity from 8 months ago. Without reference to ground, a pair of wires can present either an AC non-polar voltage, or a DC voltage with a positive and negative lead. Also, is 240v in a home (that which is center tapped in a transformer to create the two phases of 120v with the center tap tied to ground & also strapped across in the breaker box and called neutral) considered "polarized" for some reason? I'd genuinely like to know, and if so how, other than its position in a connector would you know which pole you are dealing with simply by measuring it with a meter?
The Transformers are also isolated from earth ground, which means you won’t complete the circuit from a device to your hand to earth. That’s why they have the concentric squares on their label.
That means they are double insulated.
I didn't know US outlets and plugs differentiated this. I've only known Schucko (Type F) sockets and it doesn't matter which way something is plugged in, even the grounding feature works both ways.
While not on topic of the video, I actually saw one of those shavers at 3:52 at one of our antique stores. I love finding things like that and thinking what it was like when it was new :D
"Polarity" here is misused, if only for simplicity's sake. Polarity in an electrical sense only applies to DC (direct current) which is how electricity is stored in batteries where you have a positive, + terminal and a negative, - terminal.
AC (alternating current) is what we have available at our outlets in the walls. In the United States, it is roughly 120 volts AC at 60Hz. In most cases.
In other words, it measures 120V (there's an even deeper explanation of what the voltage REALLY measures, depending on what instant in time you measure it, and another deep dive into how you get 120 volts for most of the outlets and lighting circuits in your home, and 240 volts for your heating, air conditioning, stove and dryer all from ONE hot wire and a neutral wire delivered to the power pole, or buried power source if you're so fortunate, outside your home by the electric company at generally 7,200v - it varies - and is stepped down by a transformer to deliver power into your home), but switches poles, or polarity, 60 times per second.
Easy way to remember which slot in a grounded outlet is the hot line (which has been code now for decades - only old houses from the 60's and earlier had a house full of ungrounded outlets) is to look at the outlet like a little face like so many see it with the ground pin as the mouth. Imagine the smaller slot as a "squinty" eye, like "Ouch! That hurts!", and there you go. The squinty eye will hurt you.
Nice video can you explain why.the non polarized plugs (especially the ones that convert to dc) tend to spark when plugging them in.
Nothing to do with the plugs, but some devices have capacitors in them to smooth out the power flow. When these are empty they suck a lot of power in very quickly so when you first plug them in, that sudden "inrush current" creates a spark. It's a similar principle to how a welder uses a lot of amps to create a spark big enough for welding. The capacitors also pull a lot of amps just for an extremely short time (they charge up *very* quickly) so you only get a small spark and the breakers don't pop because it's too quick. This is why if you unplug it and plug it back in again fairly quickly before the capacitors have discharged, you won't get a spark the second time as they don't need to pull as many amps to charge back up again.
I always use a Dim bulb indicator when undertaking repairs to electronic appliances. I convert vintage Tube / Valve Radios into Guitar amps so i use as many safety devices that i deem necesary to get the job done safely. I always work from Schematics and fortunately their readily available online. For most conversions i use the Fender Champ diagram. it's pretty simple build but the safety apparatus is 100% a must, it's essential or you could end up looking like Doc from Back to the Future or worse. Great info, great channel.
I LOL when he talks about filing down one prong @1:47. I used to do that a TON to extension cords plugging into Christmas lights while I was a young lad still living at home. The female plug at the opposite end from the connector were NOT polarized. It's a miracle I never burned our house down! LOL
That was a lot of great information presented in an easy to understand way!
Glad it was helpful!
@@SilverCymbal Thank you so much 😊
Another important thing for people to know is that the Transformer type plugs convert power from alternating current to direct current which has much different flow characteristics.
"i have this very illegal adapter" well ima pretend like i didnt hear that
Yes, please unleash the mystery of the polarized plug. Thanks.
It's for polarity and that's only if your plug is wired correctly obviously
Excellent camera work and lighting - as well as being informative.
Glad you liked it! Thank you
Thank you. I just had to rewire a portable heater. Sadly, It was wired wrong. and melted the cord. So I traced the hot and neutral and rewired; it works great.
Umm, where do you live? the power in my wall is AC it doesn't go in one part and out another, it bounces back and forth at 60 hz.
This over simplification is what leads to confusion.
I'm also struggling with wanting to nitpick the video, but electricity is so complex that it's not really helpful to explain all the ins and outs of alternating current in what's supposed to be a short video. The purpose of the video is to explain why the big prong, and he did that well enough for most people to understand, which is great! Confusion can also easily happen when you try to give out too much information to a crowd that doesn't need it yet.
@@TheDerekMast ahh yes speak down to the idiot masses they can’t understand what it is gods speak of.
@@MatthewWRealtor ummm, you know that only one prong has voltage applied to it right? The neutral prong is 0 volts, live is +/- 120 volts
@@majapaja_ I’m fully aware of how it works. But since you brought it up is it + or -?
@@MatthewWRealtor it alternates? 120 times a second the voltage in the live prong switches between being positive and negative relative to the voltage in the neutral prong
Excellent video, thank you
Thank you very much
Super informational, super helpful! Thank you!
When your appliance has a metal body it should really have an earth prong wired to it, so that when something goes wrong and the hot wire touches the body the RCD will trip.
In the US and Canada or some reason we only have RCD's in the bathroom and kitchen.
When the lamp circuit is open, the sensor is detecting the alternating current in the hot wire up to the point of the open switch. Even though there is no current pushed into the lamp, the changing voltage in that segment of wire is detectable. Apparently, that alternating voltage and small current can induce a magnetic field that the sensor can detect. The neutral wire is connected to the ground bar buss in your home's electrical box which is connected to the earth via the ground strap buried in the ground, hence there will be no voltage in the neutral wire and no minute current movement in the neutral wire and the sensor will no alternating magnetic field that it could detect. If you were to split the lamp chord so as to separate the wires, you would not detect a voltage in the neutral wire, but you would detect voltage in the hot wire.
Just simply amazingly explained!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t plug in a 3 prong the wrong way… lol once I take care of that pesky 3rd prong I can 😂
Some third prongs can be unscrewed off, but for others I've seen them get broken out with pliers. Not all plugs from where I am have a third slot for the round prong, so Mr. Pliers it is, then.
I learnt at least one thing from this video.
🤔🤯what a explenation never thought about that, thanks. Keep it up🔝✊
Concise and excellent explanation.
Since the Philippines uses 220v, both holes of our power outlets are HOT (110v each) so we don't follow that standard.
Only surplus appliances and appliances bought by family from other countries
We only have 2 wires coming from the pole instead of 3, we don’t use neutral for some reason.
It is AC, not DC so technically power is transmitted and received from both sides. But for the sake of a simple video, I get why you said it comes from hot and goes to neutral.
I was wondering that throughout the entire video, how can he say one is neutral and one is hot when it is ac? Is there something to do with us electric system splitting 220v to 110v ?
Me in Belgium (Europe):
Thanks, never gonna need that info.
This was very helpful. Thank you.
It is a minor safety enhancement. Since the 1950's power outlets in the US are made with one slot wider than the other. This means the plug can only fit in the socket one way, with the wide blade in the wide slot. The wide slot is supposed to be connected to neutral (which is tied to ground) and has zero volts.
In Europe plugs can be plugged either way. Here people are instructed to unplug before changing bulbs. I do not even turn the switch off.
You had me when you broke out the file and started filing down the bigger prong (blade). I know that's been done countless times in households across this country thinking, "What's the big deal?!?" Also love your " . . . very illegal adapter" ;-)
Did you ever view the video here on RUclips of the guy demonstrating how to power your house with a generator through the 220V dryer outlet? He shows how to make a very, VERY illegal adapter :-O
I love this video I like to Tinker with electricity thank you so much for sharing I'm constantly looking to learn growth mindset
This video should be UL™ listed! Great stuff, people need to get smarter and stay safe! 😁
Interesting video. Maybe if households were using DC, but they use AC, meaning that the current changes direction every 8.33ms or 60 times in a second. So both can be HOT for at least 8.33 ms. As for the demo with an open switch NO current flows in either wire. So not sure how that tool works.
Neutral stays at zero/ground potential. The hot wire switches between +120V and -120V. Because the relative voltage between the neutral and hot changes, thus does the direction of the current.
Actually it changes 120 times a second.
in the past, if I had a three-prong plug but a two-prong outlet and I couldn't plug it in. I would break off the circular prong so the device could get electricity.
I thought alternating current alternates polarities which is the flow and direction of electricity evenly? Now I'm confused 🤔😕
This video didn't really address how that works. The hot pin is where the energy comes from, alternating 120v back and forth from the neutral. In this regard, your statement is correct. However, the neutral returns the energy back to complete the circuit. It has no energy in itself. Therefore it is safe to touch (by itself). If you touch the hot and are grounded, that electricity tries to complete the circuit through your body. This doesn't happen if you touch the neutral line. Hope that helps.
The neutral stays at zero volts relative to ground. The hot alternates between a high positive voltage and a high negative voltage relative to ground.
Love and 👍🏻 every video you make , I have learned a lot from your videos , thanks for all the information from grass to electrical!! Much appreciated my friend!! Keep up the videos
Very kind of you to say thank you
problem is electricity does not flow from live to neutral. It fluctuates, it just that hot wire is the one that forces elecrricity to go from it to neutral and from neutral to it.
Filed that off. Thanks for the tip. Works great.
but why do european outlets have same size round holes and still work fine and safe ?
Because European switches are dual pole, meaning flipping them breaks the circuit on both the hot and neutral lines, in the US , switches are single pole and thus only break the hot line
@@AgentExeider yeah i know that, but why did the US choose single poles for certaint appliances etc... where european plugs are all the same, even for a lamp
@@AgentExeider No they are not.
Why do you assume they are safe? They have same size as it is not possible to fix it with round plugs without totally messing compatibility.
@@why_oh_elle No they are not double pole. I have never seen any lamp or such that has a double pole switch. Only power strips have double pole switches.
Great explanation...well done and thanks
Great video. Great narration
With a good quality NC (non-contact) probe, you can actually determine which of the two conductors in a standard electrical cord is Hot (lights up probe) and Neutral (no light). Then (with the plug polarity reversed) you would find both conductors between the switch and the lamp to be 'Hot', but find only one of the conductors on the cord between the source and the switch to be hot. I use this method often to find incorrectly wired switches.
Polarized plugs are also used on case grounded power tools and appliances. Generally an indication that the case of the device is grounded (tied to Neutral).
No, the polarization with the wider prong has nothing to do with grounding. They are NOT grounded. If the device is grounded it is done with a separate ground prong.
@@okaro6595 You are correct, they are not 'grounded' with the same protection afforded by the green (or bare) conductor. However, the case is tied to the neutral (wide) blade to prevent the chassis/case from becoming 'live'. The only 'ground' path provided by a two-prong wide blade is back through the neutral to the power panel, then from the neutral bus bar to the ground bus bar. Rather lengthy yes, but at least the case is never 'live'...
I love how the outlet have this perpetual "WTF" face. 😆
Really well done video!
2:50 but can they guarantee the house wiring is wired correctly?
The reason why the AC/DC power supplies don’t need the polarization is because at the very start there is what it’s called a full bridge rectifier, which is just for diodes and a star configuration and if you put the AC side backwards it’s still works the same way no it’s forward or backwards so that’s why the transformer adapters are not polarize but somehow the laptop charges are hard with the ground but the ground doesn’t connect anywhere inside the actual charger itself
I learned something new today. Cool. Thank you.
Very interesting and informative! But why doesn't the lamp light after you've filed the plug and plugged it in the wrong way?
There needs to be a closed circuit for the lamp to light, which there isn't since the switch is open. However, the electrical potential still is present at the light's end. Thus you could get a nasty shock out of it in certain cases even though it appears to be off.
I don't remember seeing polarized plugs (except for the 3-prong type) until about the late 1970's.
Wow amazing I didn't know that thank you so much for sharing this video you made my day 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯❣️
Power doesn’t “come out of the little one and go into the big one”, it is not Direct Current. It’s alternating current. It comes out of the little one as much as it comes out of the big one. The difference is the little one is the ungrounded conductor and hence has potential to ground of which a human is part of. So, stick a paper clip in the big one, and if the receptacle is wired correctly, you won’t get a shock as you are physically at the same ground potential. But stick a paper clip in the little one and your assistant will be calling an ambulance.
If you know how AC works it's constantly switching from Negative to positive in 60 times a second. (60 hertz) it only matter what side the switch is or hot/line coming in. Light bulb will light up whether you flip hot and neutral around.
Something else to add. Some appliances use dual pole switches which open both sides of the circuit. Most toasters are like this so they usually have unpolarized plugs.
This method is much safer and more reliable. It should've been made a requirement back in 1962, instead of polarized plugs.
Toasters have the wires accessible so they must be cut securely.
It's also required in countries where the plug is not polarized, like most countries in Europe
Very good explanation. but what about those people that insist that they must be able to plug the USB cords in upside down? And insist on damaging their devices.
Goodday I must say it was very very informative 👍 magnificent it also helped me in a situation where by I had to change one out from a extention cord and replace it with a polarized plug 🔌 😉
in australia the out let looks different and we have differnt shaped metal sticks that stick into the outlet and flipping the cord over makes it impossible to plug the cord into
Ha! I was JUST arguing with someone in the comments of another video about just this topic.
And when you're right, you just don"t wanna waste your breath. People are fucking dumb I tell ya!
Cheers✌
Hold on, america has unidirectional dual prong plugs? I thought it was bad enough they had uni directional 3 prong plugs. It's AC, if it's actually needed then you've got some larger issues on your hands.
Did you not watch the video? It explained why it is and that does increase safety to some extent. Why do you turn something that increases safety into a negative thing?
Awesome info! Thanks!
the whole direction thing isnt the way i would think about it
u just have potential going back and forth on live and neutral is like a sink for that back and forth stuff to go into
Great info. I remember before we replaced our outlets years ago when we would come across a new appliance that had a plug with one wider prong we would snip it off to make it fit. Who knew it wasn't safe. :(
How did it work with the wide prong removed?
@@ronaldbrown5745 It did work. We also use to break off the ground prong on 3 prong plug when the outlet didnt have 3 slots back then
@@ronaldbrown5745 I think he snipped part of the wider prong
Excellent presentation as usual!
The Kardashians must have an ENORMOUS slot to accommodate all those basketball players plugs.
Cool video! now you know and knowing is half the battle.
GI joe
Only thing I don’t get is,how does this work since AC actually goes BOTH ways 60 times a second. Since the current alternates, wouldn’t it be unsafe half of the time since current would be flowing backwards? Is there like a diode in the switch preventing that?
Think of it this way, neutral is always at zero/ground and hot alternates between +120V and -120V (approximately). Because the wire with relatively higher voltage charges, so does the flow direction.
@@janne_kekalainen Between +170 and -170 volts.
Thank you for this video i was able to teach a 10yo why this is not wise.
Great video. Thanks
Great video!
In the UK we have an grounded prongs on our phone chargers and on everything we use like hairdryers washing machines TVs etc.🔋🔋🔋
Yes, the plug needs the ground prong to open the shutters but in most cases it is not connected to anything.
It's not that the "flow is reversed". That's actually just wrong (AC doesn't flow in a particular direction). The point is that in order to have a flow of electricity at all, you need two different voltages. In US outlet wiring, this is done by making the hot line be 120V (AC, relative to ground), and the neutral line is 0V (or fairly close).
That means that if you are touching ground somewhere (which is easy to do) and you touch the neutral line, then it's no problem, because they're both at the same voltage (0V) so there's no electricity flowing between them, but if you touch the hot line, then the electricity will flow between the hot (120V) and ground (0V), through you, which is bad.
Devices with polarized plugs are designed so that if there's any possibility of coming in contact with either line (e.g. through a metallic case, or the outer part of a screw-in lightbulb socket, etc), it tries to make sure anything you might contact would be tied to the neutral and not the hot, so it won't be dangerous if you're also touching ground. Devices which don't have polarized plugs (such as the 9V power brick pictured) are designed in such a way that there's never any possibility of coming in contact with either one (it's entirely self-contained within a plastic shell, and the DC voltage coming out is completely isolated from both input lines), so it doesn't really matter which is which in that case.
If there is possibility for the case to become energized it has to be grounded. While the polarized plug could can make the lamp safe when it is off, it could not do it when it is on. Mainly the issue is relevant when you change the bulb. In Europe you are advised to unplug when changing it. I do not, I do not even tun it off.
this is such a good videoooo omg
The reason why on chargers the prongs are the same is that they are switch-mode power supply there is no benefit of polarization because they start with Full Bridge Rectifier and with bulky transformer power supplies there is the primary side and secondary side and of course, they are galvanically isolated in both types of powersupplies
FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!!!!
AC cannot be polarized, it alternates. The polarization means just the difference between grounded and ungrounded conductor. The device cannot know which is which especially when the plug is two prong.
Man your good I wish that I could have you to re do my Electrical in my home 😇
OK...hold on. This is good...but doesn't AC FLIP...so that the R side would be hot...but then the L side would be hot (in alternating fashion)?
Nope. The neutral stays at zero volts relative to ground. The hot swings between a high positive voltage and a high negative voltage.