scott wrote:
>> Not something you think about every day - until you realise that less 
>> civilised countries just use a plain metal stick so it's frighteningly 
>> easy to pull out of the wall, plug in backwards,
> 
> Hey, you can plug in mains stuff here (Germany) any way round you want 
> and everything still works!
> 
>> electrocute yourself with by touching the pins while 
>> inserting/removing, insert random objects into the socket, etc.
> 
> I read that by law every outlet in Germany must have an RCD device 
> (compared to only outdoor outlets in the UK), so it's pretty much 
> impossible to injure yourself.

Typically in the UK, the mains circuit, the socket *and* the plug all 
contain fuses. (Although looking at Wikipedia, it appears that the 
sockets are not "required" to do so. It's just that they always do.)

> It's also kinda convenient to have 
> outlets in the bathroom for hairdryers, electric toothbrush chargers etc.

Yeah, some bathrooms have special "shaver" sockets which are weird 2-pin 
connectors fused at 2A or something. Personally, I don't know about you, 
but my bathroom is so tiny that you'd be just as well to go somewhere 
else... ;-)

> Saw a big 3-phase motor once, the supply cable was simply stripped back 
> and tied around the contacts on the motor!  No cover, nothing.

o_O

That's cute.



OTOH, I sometimes wonder just how lethal this stuff is. For example, my 
dad told me a story once. He had one of those electric bar heaters. It's 
basically a coil of the cheapest unrefined steel wire, with many ampares 
dumped through it until it glows red hot.

Anyway, one freezing winter's day, one of the coils snapped. Obviously 
this broke the circuit. So my dad unplugged the heater and picked up the 
ends of the coil and hooked them round each other. Then he turned the 
device back on.

That worked for about 20 minutes, and then the ends unhooked. 
Frustrated, my dad picked up the ends again... and then got up off the 
floor and UNPLUGED THE HEATER before repeating this action. ;-)

So it seems putting 250 V through your hands isn't necessarily an 
instant fatality like they tell you on TV.

OTOH, take a look at those overhead power lines. It's not so much that 
the current involved might make your heart stop beating... it's more 
that your body is liable to be transformed into an actual human crisp. ;-)

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