My girlfriend, when faced with the problem of a three prong plug and a two prong outlet, uses one of those three prong adapters. Is this safe? It seems unsafe to me. What could happen? What are the risks?
Second question: The three prong adapter comes with a little grounding wire. Is this wire supposed to be connected to the little screw in the center of the outlet? If I do this, am I safe? Or do I need to run a wire from the grounding wire to, say, a radiator?
If it makes a difference, the three prong adapter will be run to a power strip which is used to power a computer; monitor, and printer.
The linked column speaks mostly about the polarizing aspect of the two regular blades. The third (grounding) prong is connected to any metallic outer parts of the appliance/lamp/toaster/computer in order to place said chassis at “earth” ground. That prevents a condition known as a floating chassis. If a floating chassis comes into contact with a source or high voltage it then becomes a hot chassis, and can then relay that dangerous current to anybody who is unfortunate enough to come into contact with it. If the chassis has been grounded to earth potential (the same electrical reference as your household plumbing), the dangerous current is shunted to ground and at worst a fuse will be blown.
The little green wire coming out of the plug adaptor serves this purpose if your receptacle doesn’t accept a grounded plug. However, while attaching it to the little screw in the middle of the wall plate is its intended purpose, that doesn’t necessarily guarrantee that you have reached a point of earth ground. To achieve this, the electrical box itself must have been properly grounded to the house wiring (or plumbing system) when the service was installed.
I don’t think that the particular kind of electronics you are speaking of necessarily require an earth ground for the safety of the devices themselves (since electrical grounds in high tech devices are usually floating anyway), I think it’s mainly a consumer safety issue.
In an attempt to keep this thread in Great Debates:
Three-prong adapters are the work of Satan!! If God had intended for your plug to fit into a two-pronged outlet, He would have Created it with only two prongs to begin with! Adapters allow you Satan-worshipping, heathenous scum to practice unnatural acts without suffering the punishment God has ordained for you! I’ll say a prayer for you, and I’ll be laughing my ass off when you’re burning in Hell, you unclean three-pronged plugger you!
Your right! But you’re answer is incomplete! Satan is working through Pro-Gun people who choose the gay lifestyle who have created those adaptor plugs to cause abortions in people by electrical shocks from improperly grounded adaptors! They belief that by causing us to abort our BABIES (from electrical shocks) they will cause us to EVOLVE into people who accept their choice of the gay lifestyle. The UFO cattle “mutilations” were their testing grounds now their starting on US! (This is mentioned in Revelations, you know)
HAHAHA!
The joke is on THEM though! Since EVIL-oution is just a theory we WONT evolve, no matter what. I believe that the Pro-gun Gay lifestyle crowd is just a bunch of NAZIs, though, since it’s just their first step in controlling the government.
Im all upset now. I have to go have a drink…a 1:100,000,000,000 dilution of rum in water should get me pretty relaxed, though!
Fenris
(Gun control, abortion, evolution, a gratitous Nazi reference, gayness being a “choice”, anti-government paranoia, homeopathy, UFOs…did I miss any?)
Three-prong plugs are the results of republican right wing extremists who were trying to pump more pork money into their districts, which depend on strip mining the natural wildlife in order to leech every last molecule of copper, tin & aluminum out of the mountains & ultimately pave the entire planet.
In response, the “tax & spend” democrats passed legislation requiring middle class consumers who earn between $27,255-$100,000 to hire unionized contractors to replace all two-prong receptacles with three pronged ones. Future laws will require households with incomes in excess of $1 million to simply move into newer, properly wired homes, and those living below the poverty level will only be allowed to run extension cords from their neighbor’s houses.
Pork money? Ha! You don’t know anything about the Original Intent of the Framers of the Constitution, do you? They allowed provisions for Congress to regulate three-pronged adapters in interstate commerce for JUST such a situation as this!
We’re talking current day families, economies & politics. How could the Framers have known what kind of complex, three-pronged civilization this country would evolve into. Did I say evolve? That’s right. The country has evolved. I suppose all you fundies out there would have our school children believing that the third prong was by design of creation, and had nothing to do with a natural process of evolution.
Don’t even assume that you know what’s good for my “extra piece”. I say it’s an unnecessary operation, and would prefer to keep my piece fully intact.
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Six months, two weeks, six days, 17 hours, 15 minutes and 19 seconds.
8148 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,018.59.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 4 weeks, 7 hours, 0 minutes.
THE YANKEES WIN! THAAAAAAH YANKEES WIN!
1996 · 1998 ··· WORLD CHAMPIONS ··· 1999 · 2000
26 Titles! The #1 Dynasty of all-time!
And most importantly… RULERS OF NYC!!*
lucwarm, please trust us enough not to cross-post. Someone will get to your thread an move it where it belongs. Meanwhile, closing a thread is a tax on the server. It’s not the hugest deal in the world, but please just let us do our jobs, OK?
