Now , why the Hell is the EARTH PIN larger in size in plugs?👇👇👇👇
Ever wondered why Earth pin on the plug is longer and thicker than the rest of the pins!?
Here is the Reason:
Eartpin is for the safety and its function is to discharge any leaking currents from equipment body to the ground. To do that,
It needs to connect first and disconnect at last.
Because,
- While connecting:
The function of this slightly longer earthing pin is to connect the metal body of the appliance or equipment to the ground before it is made live to avoid any leakage current on its metal body and hence the electrocution.So, it will ground the equipment first, as the earth pin is longer and will connect it first and equipment will get grounded first, and then connect it to the mains.
And
- While disconnecting:
Suppose that equipment body has some residual charge on it due to some reason or still has charge due to leakage currents. Now, when you disconnect that appliance from the mains, the earth pin would be still connected to the equipment and will discharge the equipment after it is switched off and thus diverting any residual charge from its body.
And reason for the thickness is that thicker conductor means larger cross section area. Current always choses least resistive path and thicker pin, due to its higher cross sectional area, provides a least resistive path to the leakage currents and hence it effectively gets diverted for our safety!
Simple but very effective!
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