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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2014
- tomscott.com - / tomscott - ALL THE ELECTRICS I USED WERE UNPLUGGED. DO NOT DO THIS.
Yep, I'm going all patriotic again. And while I'm willing to bet that a good number of British folks know the first half of this video, there's one thing about slack in here that I only just learned myself.
Pro tip: Concerned about stepping on a British plug in the dark of night? Simply scatter Lego around it in order to warn you of imminent pain.
r/ShittyLifeProTips
ive stepped on a plug many times and the next hour was in the hospital
Australian plugs seem to be less dangerous, the live and neutral plugs are diagonal making them bend when stood on.
It is a good thing electricity does not come out of the plug but into it. That would be really bad.
r/FoundSatan
You didnt mention that the cable colours are chosen so that A “green-red” colour-blind electrician can identify them.
i got taught in school green yellow was also a safety feature incase a child is pulling on them they're more likely to go for the loose colourful one
Can't really credit the UK with that. It was an EU thing we had to follow
Colour blindness runs through my family's genes and I never I knew this fact. Very interesting.
@@davidrichards1986 At which point we were part of the EU and part of the directive ;) joint venture.
@@davidrichards1986 wrong! have you seen a french or Spanish plug? The British 3 pin plug was invented in 1928 in the U.K.long before the EU was around. Also all U.K. wall sockets have on/off isolation switches, many EU member states don’t.
I'm a plumber and sometimes have to do electrical work, I've been using Tom's qoute "brown Is the colour your trousers will go if you touch it" to identify live my whole career
@DoctorPretzel, are you in the UK and Part P qualified?
It's such a good rule of thumb, I've used a few times when wiring stuff
And Tom keeps a straight face when saying this!
@@deang5622 I doubt he has to do full rewires. Minor works don't require you to be part p qualified. Even then, nothing says they can't carry out the work. It's the homeowner / landlords responsibility at the end of the day.
Red is much easier to identify than brown...
"you need to have a really inventive baby to be able to put one in there and another in there and then get a shock"
honestly if a baby managed to electrocute themselves from a British plug I wouldn't even be shocked I'd just be impressed by the ingenuity of that baby
The baby would be shocked tho
you wouldn't be shocked; but the baby will - ah dang it someone beat me to the joke
@@ImGadz absolutely deleted
You might be impressed, but that baby's a gonna
That’s shocking! For the baby
Mums in Britain bragging about how smart their kids were since they got killed by an eletrical plug.
there are no 'moms' in Britain FFS !
we’re all born fully formed with bowler hats and umbrellas saying “wot wot!”
*mums
Wow no need for attack I ain’t French. I’m from Norway so my english ain’t too sturdy.
@@eoinosullivan5829 it's a joke. Mom is the American spelling of it, Mum is British.
“I can’t imagine what’s worse than stepping on a plug in the middle of the night”
“A land mine”
Ignored Advice Productions the great james may
A lego
Is it tho? At least with a land mine there's a chance that you're immediately dead without pain.
@@Luca-iq4ev yes because you will only hurt your foot with the plug
A single block Lego piece is loads worse.
To be fair to the European plugs: if they are built according to standard the pins also are insulated far enough so you can't touch blank live metal. Aditionally the socket is recessed so you can't even reach the pins once you start plugging it in
and most of schuko outlets have shutters where you need to depress both of them with the plug to open.
@@thesayxx most New schuko do
And they are much smaller. Another thing is that you don't have to be in pain if you are unlucky to step on them. Uk plugs quickly turn with the "spikes" up, if they are lying loose on the floor.
The EU has no regulations on domestic and commercial plugs. It is deliberately excluded from the low voltage directive.
The nation states have their own requirements and standardisations - which can differ significantly. Often they copy one another but not always. Malta is the only EU nation that uses U.K - other than Ireland for obvious reasons, plugs.
Europe uses 3 different types C, E, F.
Also easier to make a near-flush to wall outlet. Still don’t like that they often spark when being connected. The Australian connector wins hands down on that by having an actual on off switch for every socket.
I loved the fact that each plug had a fuse when I lived in England. The power voltages are different than what I was used to in the US, and a few fuses blew on me and knowing about this made life a lot easier. And you didn't even mention that individual outlets have their own "On/Off" switch. To this day, that fact has struck me as genius.
Must be annoying to change the fuses and double check the switches if something is not working.
@@MorgorDre British plugs have generally had their safety supplemented with circuit breakers at the distribution board in the last 30 years. Consequently, fuses hardly ever blow these days because the circuit breaker cuts in much faster if there is an imbalance. The only time fuses blow these days is in older houses with older fuse boxes, or if someone has fitted the wrong rating of fuse in the plug.
No its stupid, why have an on off switch on a bloody socket?
@@gplusgplus2286 one use being you dont have to plug out the plug, just flick the switch. You just jelly!
@@gplusgplus2286 hahah you sir, are stupid!
Wired flex but ok
Wired? Get a wireless flex old human...
Stop
When you buy s TV. microwave oven, fridge freezer post brexit, table lamps etc we should not suddeny return to the old style plugs .
You had to effing wire everything up yourself before you could use them years back. Now you just plug everything in with today's electrical goods.
@@dvidclapperton we found the boomer
Reported for nudity.
British news: “ we lost a genius today, they were only a year old, they electrocuted themselves by plug”
mrawdog not them
😀
A true genius
reverse darwinism
itv
1:09 - With today's standard EU equipment you can't expose live metal by half plugging.
You either have an earth-less plug that has plastic neck on their pins (like UK ones)
or you have an earthed plug which has full metal pins, but the plug fills the whole socket so it won't allow you to touch metal when it makes contact.
This problem is so tiny, it is impossible to get significant damage from touching both wires with one hand.
@@Eimrine you only need to touch one wire (if it's the right one) to get shocked. If there wasn't that insulation on the contact pins it would be really dangerous
@@Kappa1060 you are wrong, 1 wire is never enough. Birds can sit on any bare wire.
@@Eimrine that's because they aren't grounded while sat on overhead cables, you probably are when poking your plugs.
@@Eimrine your body acts as the second wire, birds are unharmed because air insulates enough
Camera operator: I didn't see that coming!
Tom: no-one ever does...
Mate, this guy is a low-key comic genius and I love it!! 👌 I feel like Tom could do an excellent English-style humour sketch show that's both massively informative and hilarious.
Not a sketch show, but have you heard of Citation Needed? :P
Two drums and a cymbal fall off a cliff
Giggidy giggidy.....Giggidy Splat! Stick around!
There is sometimes when you do see it coming but the bathroom is still too far away.
I want him on QI
Another interesting fact is that the reason the earth wire is two colours (green and yellow) is to ensure that anyone with colourblindness can always identify it and thus ensure the earth is ALWAYS connected to the right pin.
Only if you know where it goes.
Right pin is wrong, the top pin is right tho~
Depends what type of colour blindness
@@timothyodeyale6565 no, that's why it's yellow green. Yellow/Green Blindness doesn't exist as far as wikipedia et all. can be believed, so no matter what other colour blindness you might have, everyone will see a wire with 2 different colours. And since the earth is the only cable with 2 different colours, everyone can always identify it.
@@reappermen Wikipedia isnt the most accurate source
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world: "So how will we make our plugs safer?" "lmao natural selection"
Here in malaysia we’ve git those same plugs, never realised that the brits invented it, well the more you know.
@@durktank5001 im also in malaysia
@@durktank5001 i mean the brits did invade malaysia not even a hundred years ago. There's a lot of standards in your country that follows the Brits
we use british plugs in cyprus too
We use the British plug in Kenya too.
Regarding leaving plugs on the floor to hurt you when you step on them: In the UK you don't need to do that because many sockets have switches so you just leave the device plugged in but switched off. Another UK safety feature.
I’m Australian, we have that too. Is that not a common thing in other places?
@@bigmanrui3503 nope , u just plug it in, im from the middle east and they use UK plugs here as well but we don't have switches on the outlets
The switch on the outlets. That's one feature I'm jealous about. I live in Sweden.
I thought all outlets had switches on them. It seems really unsafe for them to not have a switch. I remember when I was like 6 in school we were taught to turn off the switch even if nothing was plugged in because it could be dangerous. You turn it off then you take the plug out and you put the plug back in before turning it on.
@@bigmanrui3503 In the US you'd probably be accused of being a commie or something if you suggested it. The right in this country seems to think corporations have the divine right to do whatever they want. Its infuriating.
As an American... I do have to concede this one. I had the privilege of living in Ireland for a few years, and I did grow quite fond of the British plugs. The only thing I would also add is that the walls all have a switch on them as well! Instead of unplugging the cord when you are not using it you can just flip the socket off using the switch. I always thought that was quite cool
When I was a kid, if we got anything electrical for xmas we also got a plug wrapped seperately to go with it which always had a label on it saying it was from the cat 😂
Now that’s a generous cat. Minimum wage for cats being what it is and all... 😆
Ah, that gave me a chuckle. 👍
Falling asleep at night, for the last time, a thought crosses your mind... "but we don't own a cat!"
this might seriously be the best christmas story I have ever read!
*household cat, giver of plugs*
Can confirm that UK plugs really really REALLY REALLY hurt when you stand on them AND YOU WILL.
You're less likely to tread on a US plug, but it's far worse if you do manage it. A proliferation of chargers makes it more likely in recent times. I once stepped backwards onto an american wall wart, a camera charger my brother imported. It actually cut through my skin and dug into the flesh, i was limping for days. It was like stepping on a knife.
Stepping on a British plug is about the same as treading on a lego brick in my opinion. Unpleasant, but nowhere near as bad as treading on a US plug. You'd have to really stamp on it to get it to peirce the skin because the pins are many times wider.
Ikr, as a Brit, I literally felt the pain when Tom described that part
Not as bad as standing on lego
@@edwardprince1576 I'm not sure, you may be right, but I suspect they're both just as painful
@@thegearknob7161 British plugs are that but 3 knives
I live in Zimbabwe and the house we moved into had South African type M sockets. For some reason, depending on who or when your house was built, you either get South African type M or British type G in this country. We switched all the sockets to British type G for their safety. This also means having a box of spare plugs and a screwdriver handy to rewire any new appliances that come with type M plugs.
Rhodesia*
@@phoneticalballsacknot anymore
You could also have mentioned the physical size and shape of the conductor pins. They offer a greater surface area in contact with the socket terminals over round pins. This reduces contact resistance and heating effect at higher currents.
This guy talks about stuff that SHOULD be boring, But honestly it's really fascinating.
edit : jeez this has blown up wth
It’s not boring it’s brilliant
Pog
Thank you pog fish
If it's boring it's only because of people teaching the wrong way.
This is what great script writing does
During WW2 I was evacuated with my mother to a place near Bradford where all the sockets were two pin and round being a nosey kid I stuck my finger in one, well it was finger sized wasn't it, apparently I was propelled across the room at great speed and no doubt Mum had to change my nappy. Now 77 years of age I still have the scar on my index finger it must have given me an interest in electricity because I became an aircraft electrician.
Wow that was nice to hear
Very cool Colin thanks for sharing
Wow, that's very interesting! Thanks for sharing!
🧢
@@nutsack-2009 2021-1945= 76
Another great aspect of this design is that you can't unplug it by just pulling the wire, you have to pull the head of the plug instead. This ensures that over time the wire doesn't get damaged at the junction of the wire and plug, like most other plug types do.
or tripping over a wire doesn't yank it out, unlike the Yanks!
Thats also with SchuKo class 1.
Like most other plugs do? Meaning - in your mind, right? Because that doesn't happen, like, ever.
Meanwhile in America we're still arguing about ground up or ground down.
90 degree turns are usually good i would say but definitely not compact, and definitely exist with american plugs
The Schuko-plug design, that is common in most European countries, does have some advantages on its own. I.e. you can plug them in two directions... the earth grounding has even got two contacts! The 'live wire' issue is solved by making the plug outlet recessed (in a groove) - quite genius, I dare say
The bi-directionality is a really good thing in the Schuko plugs, yup. They are probably the second best design after the British plug.
@@dexterhaxxor what is the advantage of the british plug, from your point of view?
I think it is a bit bulky. I do not see a real advantage, honestly
@@marcuslang6153 the pins are square and bigger, so you get more contact area and less heating than round pins. The pin design also means that if a plug is accidentally pulled out, the earth is the last to disconnect.
Also, the cable comes out the underside of the plug, so you have to unplug by holding the plug case itself, you can't just pull on the cable to unplug a device, so there is no risk of damage to the cable - I know some modern schuko plugs have the cable go out at 90 degrees from the plug, but not all of them do yet.
The switches on our sockets are good too because it means you reduce the amount you plug and unplug, so plugs and sockets don't wear out as quickly.
The fuse is also good as a (very) last resort if you are in a house with old wiring that may not have modern RCD/RCBO/GFCI protection. Although Europeans don't allow ring circuits anymore so not as big a deal.
The Republic of Ireland uses UK plugs but only on radial circuits, not rings - I think that's the safest solution!
Schuko plugs were developed in 1925 and were established in the 1930s in Germany.
So it is a successful history of like 100 years of contempory safety equipment.
And since a combination of type E + F came on the market, these plugs can be used all over the European continent exept of Denmark and Switzerland.
@@marcuslang6153schuko plugs are inferior because they aren't grounded when connected to universal outlets common in hotels, which are flat and not recessed. UK plugs are always grounded when plugged into a universal outlet. Laptops for example WILL shock you if the charger uses schuko and you're using a universal outlet.
British plug pros:
Advanced security
Anti-baby electrocution
Unable to touch electricity through metal by putting it halfway
American plug pros:
Always look surprised
Good one, I understood what you meant
American plug pros:
Always look surprised
You wont step on it in the middle of the night
And US plugs are generally in multi-outlet plates (usually 2, sometimes 4, and often included in the same plates with wall switches) that don't take up an unreasonable amount of space.
If you accidentally leave an appliance on, the plug will automatically switch it off by falling out.
Also, impossible to trip over a American appliances cord.
°•°
Tom Scott is old enough to have been taught how to wire plugs in school, and I'm young enough not to have ever thought of that as a common skill... and we were only born a little over eleven years apart. That's fascinating to me.
I retired three years ago, I was still teaching it.
It's still on the GCSE syllabus if you take the right subject.
Luckily my father taught me how to wire plugs. My school never thought it was important but I use this skill very regularly.
That is not good if you do not know how to wire a plug-top. My Father taught me how to wire one (and to wire a ring main).
I was taught it in both primary and secondary school. I think Tom is like 8 or 9 years older than I
I've actually seen a British plug that didn't have insulation on the live prongs. Of course, it was on an American made travel adapter designed to allow you to plug American appliances into British outlets.
What can I say, we yanks love to live dangerously.
I'll be damned before I let 'em government commies take my right to electrycute myself.
obviously american
Older ones did not have the insulation. I am old and still have a transformer from the 1960's with completely metal pins but I know not to stick my fingers behind it!
@@xenon53827 Before the metal pins were insulated, inserting the wires into the socket and then pushing in a plug to hold the wires in place was often convenient. Of course, historically, appliances were sold without plugs, and the buyer would need to fit their own. Naughty engineers would also use a single strand of copper wire to bridge a blown fuse.
In Australia, only a licensed electrician can do any electrical work. No wiring plugs, no fiddling with power outlets. My physics teacher used to say "one flash and you're ash." When Tom said that up until 1992 people had to wire their own plugs, well... my trousers changed colour too.
We use 110 volt for normal appliances here in the U.S. If you get shocked you'll definitely feel it but you won't die. I've been shocked while doing electrical work and came out unharmed.
And in Australia we all respect that law 😂😂.
@@Firebirds4ever UK and Aus both use 220+ volt.
220V AC is the European Standard. 240 V AC was the Australian and New Zealand standard, but since 2000, some Australian States have dropped their mains voltage to 230v AC . The intention is to make Australian manufactured products aligned with its main trading partners.
I've wired plugs up in a few countries - Australia, UK and Europe, but from my experience, the Australia/New Zealand plug is the best. The UK fused plug would never be permitted there.
The problem with such low voltage is that because of half the voltage, you need twice as much current to do the same work. That means thicker and more expensive and heavier cable. There are ways to stop you from getting electrocuted and many countries with voltages above 200v have what they called "Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker". which shuts off power if the current flowing out on one wire isn't balanced by the current flowing back. From my experience, it works very well.
Oh man, I can only imagine the pain of stepping on one of those plugs in the middle of the night, in the dark.
It hurts more than lego
That's why as a British child, you learn quite young to leave things plugged in (we can turn the sockets off at the wall, so it's not necessarily going to start a fire). Mind you, if you step on a delicate wee Continental or American plug, it would probably come out worse than you and your foot will heal, but the plug will not.
my old phone landed face down on one from a height of 1m...
I'm 31 and I've never done it. Strangely, I've never even heard of anyone doing it. Things are either plugged in or out of the way.
Yes. you will be in pain for the very least an hour
"The electricity could ground itself through you... and through your heart... which is bad..." - I love a bit of british understatement.
Ben D ..... I lived in the US their plugs are lethal not just dangerous but lethal, hail the British safety plug!
Unless you are Frankensteins monster in which case you love it
Itz Mattie yep I can agree they almost never lay facing horizontally and in the night the earthing prong is a b*tch to step on
George Job can you eli5 why our plugs are lethal? (Is it the older outlets putting live up?)
Metriod Boy Even if they did it would hurt no matter what
Here in Australia we have wonderfully angled plugs so it’s completely impossible to plug in upside down, and they look nice, so there’s that too
They also stay in better because of the force the two angles apply
@@sethc Absolutely untrue. Having worked in the electrical trade in both the UK, and Australia, I would testify in the Supreme Court that the British plugs are far less likely to be pulled out of the wall socket than our thin pronged Australian plugs. The chief reason being that the flex cable from a British plug exits at an 90’ angle - downwards, whereas with most Australian plugs the flex cable exits directly backwards & in the same direction as pulling the plug out.
@@SmarteeeOutdoors Having had the occasionally situation where needed to pull a plug from the socket to avoid something frying or burning here in Australia - sometimes the grounded 3-pin plugs are a PITA to grasp firmly with their round conical moulding, but the ungrounded 2-pin plugs are much easier to get a solid firm grip on to give a clean pull from the socket (and wallwarts for phones, tablets and SBC's or handhelds like the RasPi or Ninty Switch are the best to grab on to when you need to unplug; they're kept in the socket firmly by the pins but provide enough surface area to get a solid clean grip on to remove with a smooth motion).
Mind you; not all plugs made to AS/NZS 3112 are the conical moulding plug where the cable is in-line with the pins; power boards (or as Tom called it in the vid - "extensions") and extension cables often come in versions with a flat plug where the cable runs 90 degrees out of the plug relative to the pins... especially if the socket plug for the extension cable is a 'piggyback' or 'passthrough' design, such as run a pedestal fan from the 'tail' of the extension and a mozzie repellant on the 'piggyback' port during summer.
but the prongs are really thin and bend way too easily
Shouldn't Australian plugs be the most dangerous in the world?
I like the on off switch some plugs have. That allows you to easily turn off electronics that continue to use electricity when turned off.
When I was a toddler here in Michigan USA I liked to put my shoe strings into the outlets. My father got safety covers for the plugs and spent a lot of time installing them. My mother told me I had figured them out within an hour of dad finishing.
If ur worried about things using electricity when turned off just unplug it
@@ethanfisher9619 the switch is there so that you dont HAVE to unplug it (and you cant step on it then)
When I was 12 I opened up the base of my lava lamp to see what made it work. I saw two metal lumps, one was labeled "+" and the other was labeled "-". Clearly the + meant Put your right finger here, and the - meant Put your left finger here. So I did that. And now, 14 years later, I'm a heroin addict.
Electricity is a gateway drug. Don't do drugs above 120V.
This made me chuckle.
I did the same thing with a kind of lava lamp too, but I knew it would electrocute me....it did shock me but it didn't really shock me cuz I expected it anyway
xD
I licked pp3 batteries instead
That took a turn xD
British sockets: *Has power button individually.*
British people: _"Let me just pull it out when not in use and lay it around the floor.."_
As a culture we're weirdly obsessed with unplugging stuff. Virtually any British home you go into is guaranteed to have at least one or two plugs just lying on the floor
@@MagisterMalleus Not in my household, things only get unplugged if there isn't enough sockets to plug everything in
That's true and even though I have never had one of these buttons fail on me, I never trust them especially when it comes to things like irons and fryers
that's because we don't have enough sockets for all our appliances, easily fixed with an extension adapter but they can take up a lot of space sometimes.
@@MagisterMalleus you telling me your wall sockets can't just be switched off?
This feature genuinely saved my life as a child trying to jam a wire coat hanger into it
These plugs are massive. The europlug is nice and slim. More plugs fit to a similar sized extension cord.
Oh ye? Well does your plug look like a smiley face?
Danish plug gang represent
i mean atleast our plugs are smiling and friendly and they won't kill us. (Unless if we intentionally try anger them)
It's a surprised face if you turn it upside down
Hmmm. But yours looks like a surprised face? Hun??
GameFuMaster This is very random and very hilarious.
Me: Doesn't use British plug
Tom Scott: So you have chosen death
😂😂
Me : Uses British plug since I was born but didn't know it's the same plug in my country as Britain
Tom Scott : You are using the best plug design out there
@@iEmoz98 chances are, you live in a Commonwealth country
@@iEmoz98 well, if nobody else is going to ask... i'm curious, what country do you live in? (I didn't know any other countries used them)
@@BrianC1664 Ireland uses em too mate 😂 Honestly, I always had this dumbass fascination with plugs😂 and our plugs have always been my favourite. I knew Ireland and Britian use em but where else🤔
I was taught how to wire a plug in 2013, but I wasn't told why it was a skill many Brits had. I had to watch this video to figure that out, for some reason?
The insulation part is by far the best part of this. As far as shudders, in the US they are called "Tamper Resistant" receptacles and are now the standard electrical code for new installs. I do like that the US plug is far more compact. The UK plugs are SO GIANT that makes things super awkward.
Those massive plug prongs look like they could easily handle 50 amps. Imagine having an oven / range plug to connect your usb / phone charger :)
There's this hip new thing going on where the top prong is retractable, plugs can be about half the size now
The UK ones are also 220V, not 110V
@@phiksit thats why the uk plugs need a fuse since you can plug your normal plugs in a 700watt power outlet lmfao
US plugs are so crap though, the prongs are more flimsy and bend easily, they are more likely to fall out of the outlet.
A video about a plug hits 3.4m views. The internet is glorious
Maybe there are other videos with plugs, that have more views. You know?
Who hasn’t had problems with plugs
3.6
Dylan sky 😂
What a time to be alive!
I remember a rhyme that was in one my science books at school:
Live is brown
Neutral blue
Remember this rhyme
Or you'll be here too
Written on a gravestone
@@ArcticArmy ABCB is a "ballad meter" and it means lines 2 and 4 rhyme… they're both "B". A "common meter" would be ABAB, where 1 and 3 also rhyme. AABB is the traditional "couplet" that Anonymous 376 may have been accustomed to. There are maaaaaany other types of rhymes though, and it may take a specific regional accent to make some work because of differing vowel sounds.
'AC holds ya, DC throws ya'
@@Anonymous-376 _sigh_
@@thejadedcommenter7371 thank you for notifying me just to say that
@@Anonymous-376 _siiiiigh_ /j
This is really clever design :D
but one "comfort" feature I'd say is missing, in the EU you can plug the plug upside down.
So if you want to power something above the power outlet you don't need to twist the cable around.
You description of the plug and how many British houses are a single circuit wired actually explains several stories I've come across where one shorted plug knocks out all the lights. That's less likely to happen in the US because we generally take 240v off the power line and split up at 120v for several fused circuits.
There is also an on/off switch on the wall socket. So that even when an appliance is plugged in, you can cut the the electricity to it.
Wait...other countries don’t have this?
@@redberry4420 At least I don't see that in Europlugs as often as those UK plugs?
chungonion20 oh okay.
@@redberry4420 I've never seen it anywhere else but that doesn't mean that some other countries don't have it.
I know Denmark has this. Here in Sweden we don't
3:05 Did Iroh teach you nothing?? You’re supposed to channel it through your stomach for this very reason!
Most underrated comment on this video.
underrated comment af
i just watched that episode yesterday
Electricity always goes the way of least resistance, which in humans case is through the veins, and that’s why the heart is so vulnerable. Also because electricity screws up the frequency that your heart beats at and makes it lose control.
Aldozzy
In case you’re not familiar with the show, my comment is a joke referring to Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don’t mean it to be taken seriously. Honestly appreciate the knowledge about how it flows tho, thank you
Standing on a plug is nothing, imagine falling from a bed and it going through your knee
Safety comes at a cost
Sometimes I miss the small EU plug for light electrical devices such as USB chargers (which has only two contacts without ground) in the UK. Those plugs are so bulky.
In France (and some other european countries) sockets are designed with a 15 mm recess to prevent electrocution. So partially plugged in plugs don't expose any pins.
@@sonacphotos Wait you mean right angle plugs? I would say at least for the "side-contact" euro countries that is the standard. The only plugs that do not do that are the 2 pole thin-style plugs.
The plugs here in Brazil also use the recessed pins design :)
@@EraYaN And those have become more common in appliances that don't need GFCI (atleast in my country)
They also surrender a lot
Also the lack of standardisation in European plugs means that sometimes a plug won't fit a socket (i.e. round plug and narrow socket)
The slack in the earth wire, I’d never realised that before. That’s a nice touch.
That's down to the person who fits the plug. It's not a built in feature. Also, a good plug fitter ("such as me), will make sure that the live is the one with the less slack. That way ensures that the appliance will stop working and not have power to it if the flex has been pulled. If the neutral is the one with the least slack, then the appliance will stop working but can still have power to it. That's a short answer!
@@sussertheoriginal Can confirm. I was never taught this, just the colours. To be part of the design, there would have to be something that you'd route the wire around that would collapse when the wires were pulled. Though some numpties would no doubt manage to defeat that.
It’s good wiring practice to make earth wire extra long.
@@sussertheoriginal More importantly, if the neutral pulls out of the plug while the live remains connected, the exposed neutral wire will likely be live.
So yes, Tom's missed that one - that the Live should be the shortest wire.
@@sussertheoriginal Also, nowadays many things don't have an earth wire - so the short Live wire is more important !
One thing I've noticed is that the pins on British plugs appear to be more than double the thickness of the ones we have in Australia, its really easy to bend ours and even break them off if you step on one, I even saw someone partway plug a socket in then jam his finger in there to straiten the pin...
So why does Britain have 210% as many electrical fires compared to countries with Schuko plug? Maybe because (1) the British design with a fuse build in was to compensate for sub par wall wiring autorized after WW2 to save copper (Loop circuit) and (2) to compensate for the risk of electrical shock, a complicated mechanicsl system turns the ground pin into a lever to open up the live holes. The geometry of the Schuko plug prevents this defect.
source? also what kind of electrical fires? not all electrical fires are from wall sockets
"A really inventive baby"
They exist.
Suicidal*
Blinded same thing
I they get a shock you’ll be both proud and worried
I would have been that baby.
"You were just expected to wire the plug yourself, I learned how to do it in school." Tom stays teaching me how Britain used to be an absolute lawless frontier pre-Y2K
yea ik now its like you got a license for that butter knife
@Phil M I've yet to see any evidence of that "tells you not to drink the battery acid" thing. And it's also a myth that owners' manuals provided valve clearance adjustment information. That was always in the service manual (which you had to buy specially), not the owners' manual.
@Phil M and not to start forest fires
But back then you could maintain a car yourself. I still remember hubby in the garage, sitting beside an apparently empty car, surrounded by engine parts. Of course, a Haynes Guide was handy as a reference if needed. Nowadays cars are so damn complicated, and governed by a computer, that you absolutely have to take them to a garage for servicing and repair at extortionate cost, assuming the garage doesn't try to scam you for unnecessary repairs (that said, we eventually found a good garage we trust).
@@prva9347 well that has more to do with complexity rather than with culture innit
1:50... that is really amazing to me. All appliances I've ever seen (unless they were self-powered by batteries) have plugs on them. I've never even heard of having to buy your own plug. (Not in the UK)
light fixtures, stove hoods, heaters and dishwashers frequently come without a plug in the US; I guess they are expected to be hardwired
In my experience, it’s also a lot harder for them to fall out of sockets than American or European. Which is why I always use British on any universal socket (my main wall adapter has is universal, with endings for UK, USA, EU, and Australia)
We still get taught to wire a plug in GCSE Physics
Was taught not got taught!!
Only in some boards
+Emily Ross I'm also 20 and I did wiring in Physics at GCSE.
well it's not on the aqa spec, teachers don't really need to teach you how to wire a plug but you need to know the main parts of the plug.
+Emily Ross Grammar huh lucky.
They're also really handy for opening bottles of beer.
Ahhhh, the real reason... 😂
Lolol
Thin Blue Line don’t do that
Absolutely. 😂
I finally know what I can do with my british adapter plugs.
Here in 2021 as a person who's job it is to give school children plugs to wire as part of their Physics GSCE. Can confirm, 80% of teens who've never done anything electrical except charge their phones would kill themselves if they wired a plug. But it's still on the syllabus along with cathode ray tubes!
Thanks, as a canadian who lived 2 years in UK I understand a bit more why you still have those enormous plug!
I love how people are offended
THAT THEIR PLUGS ARE WORSE
its gold been laughing like really
Some have worse plugs, yes, but the German Schuko plug is objectively better than the British plug. - Tom Scott even showed some examples where the British plug fails, such as if you insert it upside down ... but a Schuko plug can be inserted in both directions without any issue. A Schuko socket has a smarter child protection system; the British plug simply requires you to insert a thing in the earth-hole, and you get access to the socket. But the Schuko plug require you to insert pins in both holes at once, with equal pressure, which is something not even an adult can do reliable. A Schuko socket is even adult safe!
Liggliluff You can’t normally insert the British plugs upside down. It was a flaw in the design of that extension cord, not the plug. There is usually a much larger distance from the top of the plus to the end of the plastic making it impossible to insert upside down
Liggliluff still doesn’t matter because Germany lost both world wars
@@Liggliluff I don't think that applies to every German power socket, you can insert a phase tester in most sockets in our household. Many people buy child protection adapters, if they have children.
And don't mention the war! :P
Tom's actually unscrewing that plug needlessly incorrectly, ironically missing out another safety feature... To open a plug, you just unscrew the single, largest, central screw. That's it. You don't need to unscrew the two smaller screws at the bottom... they're there to simply hold the base of the cable to prevent it from being pulled/yanked. Some plugs even have a plastic ratchet instead of the two screws to securely hold the base of the cable in situ. But damn the plugs do hurt like hell if you accidently step on one on the floor. It's something you only do once!
stepping on an upturned silicon chip is also painful ..😉
@Clau-chau Nicol 😂
If it wasn't a plug, it was a lego brick. They were (and still are) the domestic version of landmines.
Can confirm as well! In Bangladesh, probably due to British influence from a long time ago, we still have so maaanyyy different plugs, and also these British ones. Indeed these are the safest ones. Then when I went to UK and saw these, I found out that these are British haha.
The one thing I love British plug about is that, since everything have to be that BIG, I never found adjacent holes on a bar interfere with each other
Stepping on plugs is for amateurs, try laughing so hard that you fall off your bed with your bare back straight onto the pins of a plug.
A (very large) friend of mine stepped on one with his full weight, and it went most of the way through his foot....still hasn't healed properly.
@@njones420 fookin ell
Said from previous experience?
O_o
At least you two got a cool scar.
Oh Toby. Oh no no no Toby
I just cut off the plug and stick the individual wires into the socket
How stupid can you get?
How gullible can you be? I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn for you....
maple How?
Good job.
Done that many of times. Back in the day we would have maybe 3 or 4 plugs but many more appliances so we would just swap them round to wedge the bare wires into the socket with. I got shocked a couple of times but I'm still here to write this so no harm done.
Another good feature is that the plug is quite wide so when you get those big power bricks on the plug itself it doesn't intrude on the the plug next to it.
The EU / DK plugs got all the same safety in terms of insulation on live pins + only allow access if both live wires are plug simultanious (i.e. not exposed if you plug in earth only)
There are not a fuse in the plug, but most appliances i have opened have a fuse on the circuit board.
Please look into a modern EU/DK plug
Well here in the UK all the UK appliances have a fuse in the plug
@@stephensnell5707 Which is an utter waste.
I did, I live in France. They are not as good and you can pull them straight out by yanking on the cord. You can put the two pins versions in either way up and although the french three pin can only be put in one way around, it was many years before they thought to state which sides the live and neutral should be wired, so many sockets are now wired the wrong way around.
@@xenon53827 I do not get why Live / Neutral matter when using AC. The ground safety pin just have to be correct
@@steffenstengardvilladsen3740 Because in the UK, the neutral wire is connected to earth/ground at the local transformer/substation. on older appliances, some of the internals were connected to neutral (metal chassis. etc.). If you reverse the supply wires, that metal can then become live. It happened to me with a really old radio. Very painful.
With modern appliances and also double insulation, it is not important, except that many appliances do only switch the live wire, so best to connect them the correct way around. That's my reasoning anyway...
Actually European type F plug is also that safe and not have the lego-effect.
You can check it here: www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/
+Péter Baán I kind of like the type K, it looks like a smiley face :D
Though I always thought the American type B looks like a man who is utterly horrified.
***** C is a bit.. well I don't consider it very safe, but sometimes comes handy when you don't need that much of safety, or ground loop.
However I don't consider safe the fuse in the plug either. How dum idea it is? I know the historical reasons but such an intelligent person he is and yet consider this plug the safest option when a child could simply grap a screwdriver and burn the house or worse. No one can do that with the C and F type with a generic every day use screwdriver.
I know, I'm kind of a technician when it comes to electronics. :)
www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/
+Péter Baán I thought the safest of all of them was the Type-N
Denmark here, we got all that, well except for the built in plug, and we don't have a risk of it landing in a way that will be painful to step on. We made that mistake already with lego!
"Der eeerrr et leeegooo laaaand!"
Unless you get one of those kinda bulky ones and it lands on the back with the pins facing upwards, but even then they're both rounded.
But the Danish plug doesn't have the insulated neutral/live so it's still possible to shock yourself if you get something in between a half in plug isn't it?
@@spudguy5 I live in Denmark. Some of my plugs have it, but most of them don't. Also, those shutters in the live and neutral that is in the danish sockets work differently than the British ones. In a danish socket, you can still put a screwdriver in there (I think, it's not like I've tried) as the shutters just do so that you have to push a little harder to get the plug fully in, and you have to hold the plug straight in order to get it in. So a baby would probably not be able to stick something in the socket as they have to push hard, but a kid can easily stick a screwdriver or something in there, I think.
@@spudguy5 You may get shocked, but 1) Danish sockets only make contact when the plug is almost entirely inserted, so you really have to make an effort to hit the sweet spot where you the pins are energized and the gab is wide enough that you can actually touch it with something conductive. Newer danish sockets also have a slight indentation around the plug making this even harder, and 2) it is mandatory in Denmark to have a high sensitive residual current and surge protector (HPFI) circuit breaker fitted to the main fuse board, so even if you do manage to get a brief shock, you'll likely be fine. These things have gotten seriously good over the years
Memeulous sent me here
This SHOULD be boring... but sir, by nature, you made it... REALLY INFORMATIVE, literally, and super-interesting.
Euro plugs are also half way insulated and the socket is recessed anyway so you can't touch live pins.
+rimmersbryggeri 2.5A Europlugs are partly insulated, but the larger 16A plugs used in the sockets which also accept Europlugs are not, This is a problem because there are still many non-recessed CEE 7/1 sockets in use (and still on sale) in some European countries which provide no protection from touching the live pins. (They also provide no earthing connection.)
Ok I have never seen a modern non earth plug with non insulated pins though and the old ones that are non insulated dont even fit in an earth jack. Sure there are unearthed jacks in houses build prior to 1980 or something like that here in sweden but as soon as some renovation is done by professionals they are replaced since it's illegal for them to re install unearthed except off course the special sockets that will onlly take the flat euro plug used on small appliances and lights but those are always recessed. I have seen none recessed sockets in spain and yeah that seemed a little half baked..
+rimmersbryggeri CEE 7/1 sockets are still common in the Netherlands and France. The whole family of European plugs which is referred to as types C, E and F were designed in a bygone age for a distribution system which no longer exists. It is a thoroughly compromised system because new safer designs were always compatible with what came before, thus ensuring that safety could never be assured.
fatallyflawed1947
Yeah in the old days the would insulate wires with tared linen too and if the fuses tripped alot sometimes replace them with something more solid. (nails, iron plugs etc) This had happened in a barn where my dad was working in the 70's which ended up burning down. The guy my dad worked for (recently bought the farm) was a smart guy though so he did it properly when he re built it.
Dangerous_CODE
Italians also drivew at motorway speeds while looking in the mirror.. A little excitement is good. ;) I don't think it's legal to install the none recessed pulgs even in italy anymore though.
I was just waiting for him to pull out the *Sponsored By the UK Government*
*British* *Monarch*
@@MASB29 This video was brought to you by Queen Elizabeth II
**sponsored by the house of commons** is what you actually mean
Or Filmed and produced by the BBC
I really like your videos Tom. Something else about the British plug:the shape of the pins. High surface area so large contact and square with edges so they don't slip out easily. They are really bulky though and mostly unnecessary these days with most appliances being double insulated and not needing an earth.
shutters on plugs are also here up in france, most plugs in my house have the shutters on the plugs.
Non-Brit here, wondering why you guys have all these plugs laying about on the floor everywhere, that you're stepping on them at night in the dark.
The outlets also have a switch, so you can leave them always plugged in and flip the switch to use, instead of leaving the plugs on the floor
@@carwyn3691 All things plugged in will bleed some energy. Called "standby" electricity loss because it's so often associated with electronics in standby or idle mode, it's also known as "phantom" or "vampire" electricity (for obvious reasons). Even turned off, many appliances keep drawing power
@@neamhdhlisteanach6720 Yup.
I know right??!
@@neamhdhlisteanach6720 no, this is wrong, if you just turn your TV off with the remote and do nothing at the wall socket, then yes it will draw 'standby' power, but if you switch it off at the wall then the circuit is broken, it draws no power, it is the same as taking the plug out of the socket.
(The only exception being in lightning storms, lightning strikes that get in to the power lines have high enough voltage to jump the little gap in the circuit caused by the switch in the off position in the socket, so it can still damage your electrical items if left plugged in and switch off, it would also blow the fuse in the plug.)
You forgot to mention every UK plug has individual switch, so you don’t need to pull the plug to switch off the device.
Not true - there are unswitched sockets in many UK houses.
@@johnenfield1930 Very rare tho
@@jackharkin5387 Not true. Quite common.
@@Sam-yr5ih Swear I've only seen a few and they're usually in really old Victorian style houses
@@jackharkin5387 Depends on what part of England you live in I suppose. Rarer in some parts when compared to others.
only taken me nine years to catch up to this one, thanks Tom.
So interesting I didn’t know that. That is excellent design thinking - hats off to whoever came up with those ideas
perfectly designed to inflict pain on a barefoot individual.
samithedood legos be damned
+Kyle Hickey LEGO*
Hell, look at that huge plug though. I've stepped on many lego barefoot before, and yes it hurts, but god damn that huge plug sticking STRAIGHT up if you stomped on that full force unexpectedly while walking around in the dark... that'd go beyond a lego, sorry.
An elderly now ex-colleague of mine discovered he had leukemia after standing on a plug in the night. He went to the doctor once he noticed that it wasn't really healing. Thanks to that he got treatment and survived. He is currently enjoying retirement.
negative to eventual positive :-)
That's the reason we I randomly assault people: Radical preventive care. :D
@@ViolentFEAR
name kinda checks out
@@beepboopily6285 OH MY GOD ITS JESUS
The title of this video made it look like Tom was about to go into detail about high quality British drug dealers.
German and French sockets are safer though because you need to input both live and neutral at the same time to get something through and kids are truly inventive so they'll definitely turn the plug the other way
Correction:
The EU plug pins are, here in Germany at least, also covered in plastic half way through and the plug itself inserts into the socket so that you can’t even see any pins at all.
Same in Poland.
The earthless type is insulated, the earthed ones are a bit larger and usually have to go in ~2 cm, though they are a bit of a hazard in the ~0,5cm deep earthless sockets.
And it's less likely to impale your feet with them.
Ever noticed, that remarks like "The best in the world" are only used by UK and US people? That's because they live in their own buttle and hardly get out to see the rest of the world.
@@switcher656 I mean in this case at least, there is a compelling argument
I've actually stepped on an upturned plug - it actually stuck in my foot, and in the shock, I was like "Huh. I'm a socket." Theeen the pain, and blood, and screaming came.
Ouch...
Same happened with my sister. Ha your comment brings back "good" memories.
Good points. I like Type F because the outlet is recessed in. At no point is the electric prongs exposed because the prongs are the same distance as the recess. It also avoids moving parts on the outlet. Or having to insulate the prongs.
I CANT BELEIVE THIS IS FROM 8 YEARS AGO IT STILL THE SAME QUALITY AS TODAYS VIDEOS THATS AMAZING
2:05
*There is always a (insert something)-shortage in Britain*
Right now it's an intelligence shortage
@@seancooper4058 And houses i guess.
@@seancooper4058 been going on for at least 3.5 years now.
I’d rather have a shortage of copper than school shootings and having to pay for healthcare
@@axis9038 not sure there were many school shootings when in USA when the UK had a shortage of copper and as I understand it, the price of healthcare was reasonable when we had the shortages of copper too, now we have plenty of copper, free healthcare and can count the number of mass shootings in the 20th and 21st centuries on my fingers.
Now all the babies know. Thank youuu
Road to 100 subs with one video. If you get to call us babies can I call you "person at death's door"?
Interpretation is a funny thing, from my perspective it sounded more like a snarky comment about how youngsters now know something, but perhaps it might be a joke, I don't really know anymore whether it's an insult or a joke.
Yeldur thank you for your opinion
Thank you for yours?
+Yeldur I think he meant actual babies.
My European plug can do everything this plug can do (minus the fuse inside… which I am more than happy about) and I can step on it without dying.
I guess you have never really looked into the European plug. Also, you have the fuse in the plug because of all the old houses, and you can't stop it now, not because it's the better solution.
This would have prevented me from burning the inside of 4 fingers at age 7 when I wondered what would happen if I stuck a piece of wire in both openings of an American outlet.
This video was worth it for the comments. It's amazing how people become so patriotic about plugs...
Haha, I was thinking the same reading all these comments. As a Brit that is with the worlds best plugs. ;)
I've been scrolling and laughing, ahhh nationalism! I wish everyone on Earth could be proud of being a member of our species, Homo sapiens, and support each other. All technology that has ever been invented by a human has been inspired or influenced by the knowledge and inventions of other humans. Technology improves incrementally and sometimes in giant leaps, but it's all inspired by other people's ideas from other places, states, nations etc... I'm tired of tribal us/them thinking, and all the problems and bloodshed it leads to.
I have 0 sense of humour and this made me laugh out loud
Looks like you gained +1 point in your humor stat, Skezza!
Ayyy
At an european plug its impossible to touch anything,when its plugged in halfway
True that, the thin ones are isolated down to half length, and the Schukos only fit into well-shaped sockets so by the time it's out of the well, it's already disconnected.
Jonas until recently this was an eu plug
It's also nice that both pins have to be inserted at the same time, or else the shutters won't open. With the rare exeption of your physics teacher single-handedly shoving two cables in a socket to demonstrate transformers.
Jonas *a European
@@idonotlikeboats9328 *aN eu plug
I think something, that should also be mentioned, is that the wire on high-voltage appliances is always on the bottom, so therefore it is harder to damage the cable, because you cannot pull on it to unplug it.
Quadruple in built redundancy and yet more dangerous than lego bricks .
The German ones used all over Europe are better and safer actually, and here is why:
CONTACT:
As you have just shown, it is possible to put the plug upside down, which makes contact possible.
Also this kind of system to open and close the protection is known to break in many cases, either rendering your outlet unusable or unsafe.
Which is why European plugs are symetrical, have very tiny holes and don't have moving parts. The sequrity works differently, and it requires bot points to be pressed at the same time.
Also the European wall plug is designed to be used with a special lock, that is dirt cheap, or even comes free with the plugs, that insures that only with a special plastic key can someone open the lock. Great for outside plugs, and keys.
INSULATION:
European sockets are actually kind of a hole, about 1,5 cm inwards, which means that when full sockets are half pluged, no metalic parts actually show up. Whith half sockets, the same insulation is applied in European plugs too.
Not to mention that, by design, European plugs can be used outside in any weather.
CONSTRUCTION:
There is a reason we say things are "screwed'. Screws are a terrible idea in plugs, which is why European plugs don't have any. All the systems are fused in place with many layers of plastic, which means its impossible to disasseble, and adds to safety.
European plugs have another advantage. As you said, Brittish households have a common circuit for all sockets, not all Europeans do that though. Every room here has its own circuit with its very own fuse which are all located on a central panel, which means that if an appliance breaks the circuit of one room, the others operate fine, and you your socket, and plug are good as new.
Which is why all of the above are common in all of Europe, and its only the Earth point that is different in some countries.
ADDED BONUS:
Generally, European outlets come in 2 sizes, the full ones, which are 40% smaller than yours, and the half one which are TINY :O . So smaller plugs here can acomodate more devices. Half outlets are also designed in a way that full ones cant get in. Not to mention that they never, by design, land with their points up...
I don't think there is any kind of pride in the plug. But the fact that half of the world uses the german plug or some variation of it, even back in the day when the UK was the exporting power of the world, proves that it is, by far I would say, a better design.
The absolute nonsense of this post is summed up by the stupid claim at the end that: "half of the world uses the german plug or some variation of it" Well, if we take the ten largest countries by population only two of them use a national standard based on the German plug! Those ten countries represent 56% of the world's population, and subtracting the populations of the two exceptions (Russia and Indonesia) still leaves over 50% of the world population in the remaining eight! And that is before we consider the remaining 240 countries, about 50 of which use the British plug described, about 45 use the American plug, about 30 use the old round-pin British plug, and about 20 the same plug as China.
You should not talk about "European plugs" or "European Outlets"" which are terms which describe many different plugs, including the one described in this video (Britain is part of Europe after all). Of the 28 EU countries in the EU, 18 use the German “Schuko” socket, 4 use the French socket, and 4 use the BS 1363 type. Denmark and Italy both have unique types, with several variations of each! French plugs will not fit into non-French sockets, German plugs will not fit into non-German sockets etc. There is also a hybrid plug which will fit into both French and German sockets. An attempt was made to introduce some form of interchangeability by creating the Europlug (EN 50075) but this is an unearthed plug for use with low current (
Are we seriously going to argue about a fucking wall plug?
Every device that I carry with me has worked in plugs in Germany, France, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Sweden. I know it's technically not a common standard but its close to the point of me not giving a fuck when going abroad, which is not the case for you.
Regards.
***** But, for the reasons given in my response to TheThOdOr1s above, they are most definitely not similar regarding safety, it is a matter of fact, not opinion. Being able to reverse line and neutral is just another safety shortcoming.
***** umad
***** This isn't an insult dicks are awesome
The greatest plug design in the world.... .. until you stand on one.....😆😱
mistral55 not wrong. It will make you swear every time
i mean that's just a common problem for all plug designs of the world, dont leave yall plugs laying around like that
@@spootymaniacs not us ones
mistral55
Stand on a plug and feel pain for a couple of hours; touch a live wire/plug and you will never feel pain again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@largespaghetti5215 i mean if you ever leave your phone adapter just laying around..
Only improvement I can think of is if the ground/earth prong was angled. Great design though, and great video on it, Tom!
I know this was 8 years ago, but I recall Gavin talking about this video and making this point on the RT podcast back then. Good point, well made.