Polarization often reminds people of sunglasses, but it’s actually an electrical term as well! Who knew? (Well, I did, but I’m the exception, not the rule). My knowledge of polarization was particularly useful the other day. I was playing a casual game of croquet with my friend, Quincy Quail, when he started complaining about plugs to me, of all things.
“What’s the point,” he asked, “of having those 2 little prong things different sizes? I always try to plug lamps and things like that in, and I end up doing it backward! It’s so frustrating!”
I realized that many people must have this problem and that as a power cord blogger, I have a responsibility to the world to make sure people are getting the most out their sockets, and understand why their plugs are the way they are.
Quincy Quail was complaining about dealing with polarized plugs and receptacles. In a previous post, we talked about how the ground pin in an outlet protects people from shocking themselves when plugging in outlets. Well, polarized 2-prong devices and polarized outlets protect people from electrocution as well. The plug this is shown above on the right, the NEMA 1-15P is a common example of a polarized plug.
How to Tell if a Plug Is Polarized
You can tell a plug is polarized because, in 2-prong devices, one blade will be wider than the other. This wider prong is called the “neutral” prong, and the slimmer prong is called the “hot” prong.
The neutral prong connects to the neutral wire in the outlet and the hot prong connects to the hot wire, thus guaranteeing the proper transfer of electricity. Before the polarization of plugs, you could be plugging in something and the neutral prong could be hitting the hot wire in your outlet, but you would have no idea!
When I told Quincy this, he did not seem shocked and dismayed as he should have been. Instead, he was still a bit bemused.
“What happens if the prongs don’t align with the proper wires in the outlet?” he asked.
Well, what can essentially happen is that you could turn a lamp off, but if the neutral and the hot wires aren’t properly connected, and the plug is not polarized, it still poses an electrical shock hazard. This means even when you turn a device off, it may still emit shocks, which can lead to electrocution or household fires!
Quincy was taken aback! He had always assumed that if an electronic device was off, that it would be off and would be incapable of emitting any power! Sadly, this common view is incorrect. Before polarized plugs and outlets, a 2-prong electrical device could be plugged into an outlet, and still be able to shock someone even if turned completely off.
This was obviously not a risk worth taking. In a similar manner to the ground pin, polarization provides an important safety feature. The longer pin in polarized plugs grounds the electrical current to protect people from electric shocks. Polarization serves the same purpose as grounding, without requiring manufacturers to install ground pins into all devices.
Commonplace Polarized Plugs
Polarized plugs became commonplace around the 1960’s, even though the plug was first created by George Knapp in 1915. Most mid-twentieth century appliances are now polarized. Polarization is a nice space-effective alternative to a ground pin. Below is a chart with examples of polarized and non-polarized appliances.
Examples of Polarized Appliances |
Examples of Non-polarized Appliances |
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Quincy dropped his croquet mallet and bellowed “I must make sure all of my plugs are polarized!”
I took Quincy in his home to get some tea and calm him down, as I continued to explain the ins-and-outs of polarization. See, you should look at plugs and pins as glass puzzles. Never try and jam a non-polarized plug into a polarized outlet and vice versa. Trying to fit two incompatible glass puzzle pieces together will lead to a shattered puzzle. Trying to fit incompatible plugs together can lead to a shattered electrical system.