Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Ground Terminal On Your Electric Plug!


Ground Terminal on your electric plug!
The ground prong on your electric cord protects both you and what you plug in.  If you look at the 3 prong plug of an electric product you will notice that the ground prong is longer than the other two, or it should be.

With the ground prong longer than the other two prongs on the plug, it engages the circuit first, and this ensures that the circuit is grounded before any current can flow. If there is a short problem in what you are plugging it is grounded before you can get shocked.  If the plug has no ground prong the product is what is called double insulated and even if the product has a short in it you cannot get shocked. 

I needed an extension cord for a project I was doing and when I went to plug it in I noticed the plug did not look right. The ground prong was shorter than the other two prongs. It took only a few minutes to take off the plug and fix the problem. The replacement end plug had just been assembled incorrectly when put on. The person who replaced the plug most likely did not even notice it was wrong. Once plugged in I am sure it would have worked just fine.  But if there was a short in the circuit when it was being plugged in, there could have been a problem that could result in an injury or damaged tool or electronic product.
 
Look at the plug on the right with the short round prong. It should be like the one on the left.

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