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.

Depends on the device has a transformer to step down the current. Typically TV’s, computers and such have circuitry set up to expect the potential to always be negative thus they have to orient to the plug properly. Inductive motors, such as your vacuum cleaner won’t care.