[Gllug] OT: Mains electricity colour coding.

[James Courtier-Dutton]

On 24 October 2010 21:59, Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 06:58:44PM +0100, general_email at technicalbloke.com wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> For time immemorial I have been told brown is live, blue is neutral and
>> yellow/green is earth. Mains electricity is AC so it oscillates between
>> the positive and negative 50 times a second right? In that case why does
>> it matter which way you wire the blue and brown cables to the nominally
>> blue and brown terminals in a plug? I always assumed you could
>> electrocute yourself equally well by touching the blue terminal, maybe
>> even better as the brown's got a fuse that might protect you!
>>
>> I'm slowly working my way through W.P.Jolly's seemingly excellent "Teach
>> Yourself Electronics" so maybe it'll all become clear soon, having said
>> that - I'm also impatient!
>>
>> I'm wondering now if and how the notion of "live" and "neutral" is
>> different to that of "positive and negative". If so can anyone breifly
>> explain or point me to a website that explains? Haven't had much joy
>> with google so far :/
>>
>> Yours ignorantly,
>
> Don't worry - you understand a lot compared to some people...... something
> that I saw about a month ago:
>
> I am not sure if I should laugh or cry at this, I suspect cry.  The complete
> lack of understanding that it shows is astounding.  Did they author ever do any
> science at school ?
>
> See:
>
>        http://www.bestbrandtobuy.com/car-power-adapter/
>
> They seem to have becom sufficiently embarassed at the article that the removed
> much of it. I have copied it as it was originally below.
>
> Regards
>
> ****************
> Car Power Adapter
>
> The reason normal electrical appliances dont work in vehicles is because the
> power source isnt the same. Cars use AC power instead of DC, which is what we
> have in our homes. The electricity can still power your machine, but the power
> plug it uses wont consume the power correctly. Car power adapters are basically
> just power plugs that are designed to take in your cars AC power. They adapt to
> your machine in the same way, but they end differently, as they are designed to
> plug into your cars cigarette lighter, as opposed to a normal wall outer.
>

Just slight errors, but who cars AC/DC. Its all the same isn't it!
Just some band from the 80s
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