Why can some (US) outlets fit a plug from either way you put it in, but some plugs have a fatter and skinnier prong?
In: 8026
In regular 110V US household electrical systems the two wires is the live wire with high voltage and the neutral wire which have a very low voltage difference to ground. The concept is that if anything goes wrong in an appliance and you end up with a short circuit through the user to ground the fault should be in the neutral wire and not the live wire. So the appliances which have a higher chance of a fault in one wire then the other have a wider prong on the neutral wire so that it can only be plugged into the neutral side of the plug. Appliances where this does not matter have two small prongs which can go inn either way.
There is also some outlets which cheat and have two wide holes instead of one wide and one small. But these do not follow the standard and if something goes wrong in the appliance it is more likely to shock you.
Latest Answers