AC polarity

Whose new electrical codes, I wonder? Sounds kind of silly. Maybe we should change the plumbing code to require that a shower head be placed no higher than 3 feet from the bottom of the tub because of the remote possibility that some fool will get hot water in his eyes upon entering the shower. Don't even get me started on those enviro-nazi low-flow toilets! ;-)

Here's an interesting twist. In my house, only the outlets that are controlled by a wall switch are mounted up side down so you know immediately which ones they are.

Abe, did you do that or was that done by some electrician that was actually thinking for a change ? If it was an electrician, we know it wasn't Glen that did it. HAHAHA Sean
>

PS... i know i've got one coming from Glen on that one !!! : )

Polarity can be an important safety issue, especially if the ground is floating. Reversing polarity on some tube equipment I've personally owned will place 110VAC on the chassis. If you touch the chassis and another part of your body is grounded, you become the least resistant path to ground. In other words, major shock!

If you mount those plugs upside down all the electricity will run out!!!

I enjoyed all the reading guys!

Thanks,

Actually AC IS very asymmetrical with respect to ground, although Clueless is obviously correct that if you ignore ground and only check between the two AC terminals, you can't tell which is which. In the vast majority of cases, though, the "hot" side (black/narrow) will be around 120V from ground and the "neutral" side (white/wide) will be very near but not exactly at ground. This has both safety and electrical implications. You can usually grab the white side without much shock, whereas the black side will get you every time (no, I'm not recommending you try it!). And in the electrical case, it can be the source of ground loop problems if different components are hooked to the power source in different ways or grounded differently.