What I’m talking about is, for example, a keurig coffee machine having two differently shaped prongs where one prong is bigger and wider than the other, so you have to insert the wider prong into the wider port.
However, something like a phone adapter doesn’t have this, and the two prongs are the same size and shape.
Why is this?
In: 125
*In theory* it’s a safety thing.
Everyone going on about the “chassis being grounded” by connecting it to neutral is plain *wrong*. Outlets get miswired all the time, and that’d result in live being exposed on the chassis. That’s stupid dangerous, so a metal chassis should *only* be grounded using a *ground pin*.
So what’s left is people poking their fingers or screwdrivers into equipment with power switches. If a light socket is switched off and the switch is in the live wire, the entire socket is “safe” to touch. But if the switch is in the neutral, on the other hand, you’ll still have a live wire exposed! Poking around into equipment which could potentially be powered is a *really bad idea*, which is why you unplug it first – or switch off the circuit breaker if it doesn’t have a plug.
Are polarized plugs safer? Well, they definitely aren’t any *worse*, but a decent part of the world uses unpolarized plugs without any issues – so the benefits are probably a bit overblown.
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