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A comment on A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today. Parent comment

Re:A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today by dlgeek on Thursday November 25, 2021 @10:37PM (#29347306)
Polarized plugs have one of the prongs bigger than the other and will only fit one way into an outlet. This ensures that you actually know which wire is hot and which wire is neutral and can ensure the switch controls hot (the power source) rather than neutral (the power return).
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Re:A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today by ygra on Saturday November 27, 2021 @12:48PM (#29361933)
Not every country even has polarized plugs, though. The concept was new to me too at a time. The German Schuko plug for example is unpolarized, as is the euro plug, so there's no polarized plug options here.
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