I work with equipment that operates on three phase electrical circuits. I can’t get my head around the concept of “phases.”
In: 17
Phases are your “hot” wires.
Are you in the US? Your workplace likely runs a 480V/277V system.
Each phase carries 277V. And your equipment can be made to run on a hot and neutral. But, the higher the voltage the smaller the wire can be so it is desirable to run equipment at the highest safe-ish voltage possible to keep components smaller.
(That is why high voltage lines are not 6′ in diameter even though the feed a city)
Each phase moves in a wave from +277V to 0V to -277V and so on. But the waves peak at different moments in time on each phase so connecting phase to phase instead of phase to neutral gives you 480V.
“But 277+277 is 554, not 480!” you say.
Take a peek at how the waves go. Pick a peak of any wave, look straight down at where another phase is. You’ll see the other phase isn’t peaked in the negative so you get 480V instead of 554V.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/3_phase_AC_waveform.svg/1280px-3_phase_AC_waveform.svg.png
Single phase works the same, except 120V/240V and the math is simpler because the phases peak at the same time.
https://www.hvacrschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/240v-waveform.png
Electricity is a wild science.
FYI, when you look at a light it is actually off 60 times per second and your slow human brain just doesn’t process it. *POOF!* mind blown.
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