why did countries choose different hz and voltages and why do some use 60 and other 50hz, why have a 50hz 240v and not 60hz 240v or even 50hz 250v to make consistent with the hz
In: Physics
When the electrical systems of the world were created, the world was much less standardized. This started before the Internet (or even the telephone), before easy travel between continents, and before mass manufacturing of electrical appliances.
Each country/region came up with its own standards as electrical systems grew. Once you have a system, it’s really hard to change (imagine asking every person in a country to buy/install new cords/plugs for everything they own).
The hassle of changing the system is not worth the minor benefits of having fewer systems.
Standards get adopted for lots of different reasons. In a case like this, it would be because the first electric companies had their own standards based on their equipment. As those companies spread their services to more people, machines were built to use the local standard. People weren’t getting toasters shipped from other countries for the most part; everything would be made more or less in your area, to fit your local standards. There was no reason to care if the UK and the USA had a different system of volts and hz. Now, so many things are built to accommodate whatever your local standard is that shifting to something new would be a big expensive problem requiring you to replace a tone of machines and infrastructure. On top of that, there isn’t a strong reason *to* change, since there really just aren’t that many issues with one place having a slightly different standard than another. And, even if you did want to change, what standard should you adopt?
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