double pronged outlets, how come they are never plugged in wrong?

Question

So in England we have the ground prong so our cables are all the same, however I know in the states and other places they don’t, so how come no damage is caused if the positive and negative are the wrong way around?

In: 22

Answer 1

It’s AC power, so most of the time it doesn’t matter because it goes + – + – + – 50 times a second (50Hz) for you in Europe, and 60 times a second (60 Hz) in the US and Canada. If you change that to – + – + – +, it doesn’t really change anything.

Certain devices can be polarized, though, so they will have one prong be slightly larger, and the corresponding hole is also slightly larger, so you can’t plug it in backwards. If you look at an American outlet, you can see the left hole is slightly taller than the right.