No-one is going to comment on the outlet being installed upside down?
FYI: there’s a faction of people who believe this orientation is safer, given that the ground pin is on top (so if a plug is part-way out and something falls behind it, it’ll hit the harmless ground pin instead of the line).
Also FYI: anyone who doesn’t install it like it’s a little surprised face is insane and should be treated as such.
Regardless of the reason and whether it’s justified, this is code for US hospitals, or so I’ve been told.
Pretty common to see if you are in the US at least, builders tend to install a plug backwards if it’s operated by a light switch. Not code or anything, just something they do.
All the outlets in our house were installed upside down, off it wasn’t for bulky transformers that plug directly in & chunky plugs which now have the wire going out upwards, I’m sure it would be a sensible and slightly safer way to do outlets
But bulky transformers are a thing, so there’s that. In any case, what would make the ground on top “slightly safer”?
If the plug is loose and you grab and yank it, there’s no risk of touching the hot, and the ground won’t hurt you. Also, with ground side down, loose outlets expose the hot connection when gravity pulls it down, while this doesn’t happen in the ground up orientation.
Electricity flows over metal, not through it. As long as there’s an insulator on top, there shouldn’t be an issue.
Would I try it? No.
Could it work? Yes.
Why are all the wires full of expensive metal if we only need the surface?
It depends!
Sometimes wires are stranded–multiple small cores bundled together. This results in greater potential for electricity flow (per amount of copper), and results in greater flexibility of the wire. Most of the cords you deal with on a daily basis are made from stranded copper cable.
But there are cases where solid core is important for other reasons. A solid core wire is stiffer and more difficult to bend, and will typically retain whatever shape it is bent into. But pump electricity through it for decades and it’ll last a lot longer and be more reliable than its stranded counterpart. This is why your house’s wiring typically uses solid core copper–doesn’t move once installed, and reliability is kinda important when it’s inside your walls.
Both TO and you seem to have a sort of semi-understanding of things but you feel like you really know it, so you spread this stuff online. I hate it.
Stranded or solid is irrelevant for DC or 50/60 Hz electricity. The same cross section can carry the same current with the same voltage drop. The skin effect only starts to get relevant at much higher frequencies.
Shit, you’re right. Not sure if I was taught wrong or if I’m remembering wrong, but it seems there’s no difference at lower frequencies (my day job involves exclusively higher-frequency stuff, I thought it was universal).
Thanks for correcting me on that.
Electrical engineer here. You’re mostly right–electricity does mostly flow on the outside of a conductor (a small amount does flow through the core).
But based on this picture, I don’t see an insulator on the hanger wire. Which means it’ll trip a breaker or blow a fuse as soon as you plug it in. And if it’s at your crazy uncle Ned’s house, where he casually replaces his fuses with pennies, you’ll get some visitors in a fancy truck!
I assume the metal hanger is aluminium. Unless you competely cover the metal in an insulator at the outlet legs then this will short and trip a fuse the second it is plugged in.
Bismuth or Tungsten are very low in electrical conductivity. Coat them in clear rubber and it should be a long while before there’s a short.
Electricity flows over metal, not through it.
I don’t think that’s true, but I don’t know enough about electricity to refute it. electromagnetism, sure, but as long as the metal loops around it’ll pull in the electricity (I believe).
Electrical engineer reporting for duty!
It mostly does use the outside (a smaller amount can run through the core). But your point is correct–if there’s no insultation between the hanger and the contacts, it’ll conduct electricity.
I beleieve it’s true with high frequency electricity, like in speakers, but not at 60hz
Harvard referring to the Harvard hospital, of course.
That’s the joke in the title.
You know its good satire when you gotta think for a minute about whether this was serious or not.
Well if it was real they would have realized the mistake the moment they plugged it in. Since it’s plugged in for the picture, we know they are doing satire
Honestly, if it was plastic & around the block instead of the outlet, then that’ll be a pretty good idea. Plus, we have 3-D printers, so it should be easy
Notice how this pic was taken with flash
When I was in middle school, we would bend a paper clip so it fit in a socket, then wrap a rubber band around the “handle”, then plug it into a socket. The paperclip would make a small “explosion”, melt off in the socket, and sometimes blow the fuse. It was a fun but crazy form of science/vandalism…
Kids should be given space to explore,that way we could find what’s inside them What do you think about this
As a manufacturer of kids sized caskets, I fully support your initiative.
I have to know whether this is a joke or not
It is a joke
Hahaha not funny
Thank you, I’m choosing to believe you for my sanity
The left picture would’ve burned down the house otherwise
Isn’t the socket turned off?
Didn’t even notice that, in my country that doesn’t exist
Reminds me of the movie where the protagonist Johnny 5 exclaims, “Number 5 is alive!”
Every time I see US sockets, I get the heebie jeebies. Or any non-recessed socket really, but at least most add insulation to the base of the prongs. No such luck here.
Meh, that’s only going to “coulda killed you”. The one piece metal wire will create a dead short across the circuit and trip it out instantly. He IS going to need new underwear and possibly pants also. He’ll have some scorched fingers with maybe a bit of temporary tingling in them after pissing off the angry pixies. But as far as death goes, god would need to be looking down directly at him and go “Fuck this guy, right now”. Not impossible, but it would require an exceptional amount of bad luck.
US outlets are safe. Not only does this out show a bit of recess at the surface, but the metal contacts that are carrying the current are also recessed inside about 1/8"/3mm where you can’t see them.
I dropped a penny into the gap between the plug and the socket when I was a toddler. The sparks were FANTASTIC, and long lasting, like a sparkler shooting up the wall.
My dad tried to remove the penny with his metal pliers, my mom stopped him before he killed himself. She yanked the cord and it stopped.
We saved the penny for awhile, might still be somewhere. It burned two trenches in the penny, it almost made it all the way through.
Lessons were learned.
What are you comparing this to? Same in Japan.
Japanese outlets don’t even have a ground pin, only live and neutral. While that’s not a problem on low-voltage or plastic devices, it can be shockingly (haha) dangerous in combination with metal casings.
Same in Switzerland, the non-recessed ones mustn’t be installed anymore. But just in case devices are plugged into flat ones you also get isolation on the non-earth pins on the new cables
Probably European Schuko and British outlets, they are WAY better.
I think schuko is much more likely the British ones are not recessed
Yeah, I forgot, thanks for the correction.
Literally the only good thing that could be said about this is that it’s on a brick wall. Otherwise that’s now the 3rd most dangerous electrical outlet I’ve ever seen.
How so? This one instantly trips a circuit breaker and then is quite safe. Now if the two hooks were separate, ir’d be a whole different matter…
That metal hook thing is shorting the circuit, acting as a resistor. That means it’ll heat up, and could easily start a fire.
Which ones are first and second?
2nd worst: at my friend’s last place the microwave mounted over the stove fell out and he had me come look and fix it and I discovered that the outlet that powered the microwave was strapped to the gas line. No box, just the wires out the end of the conduit wired into the outlet there inside the wall. I told him to get an electrician, I was not touching that shit.
1st worst: basically looked like this.
Wow. You’ve seen things.
I don’t get it
Hand warmer.
Toothbrush
pipe bomb
“Harry I’ve found the source of ticking sound”
Oh hey it’s a felony tube.
Seems more like a fash light shape
While it will make a flash of light, it can only do it once.
It’ll be a great learning experience if the kids survives it.
Oh, he survived. He would need new underwear and possibly pants also. Might be some scorched fingers and possibly temporary tingling in the fingers, but the Angry Pixies wouldn’t kill him…This time.
