re: #255 Killgore Trout

Why do some appliance have a fat thingy and a skinny thingy on plug (so you can only plug it in one way) and other appliances have two skinny thingys on the plug. Alternating current means it shouldn’t matter which way it’s plugged in.

The fat thingy is supposed to be “neutral”, which is supposed to be basically ground.
The skinny thingy is “hot”, which goes plusity and minusity around zero.
If you’ve got a 3-prong outlet, it should be the one on the left.
The hole in the bottom of a 3-prong outlet is supposed to be earth ground.

It doesn’t matter which way it’s plugged in unless the chassis of whatever you’re plugging in is somehow connected to one of the two prongs.