Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!elroy!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer
From: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: WHat are those holes for?
Message-ID: <7327@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 19 Jul 88 16:03:49 GMT
References: <10790@oberon.USC.EDU> <327@richp1.UUCP> <303@btree.uucp>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (David Palmer)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 23

In article <303@btree.uucp> rfarris@btree.UCSD.EDU (rick farris) writes:
>:[Why do standard electrical plugs have holes in the metal prongs?

Argument from authority:  Cecil Adams (as reported in "_More straight Dope_")
asked various people in the industry.  It turns out that early sockets
could not hold  plugs firmly enough, and so the holes were to give
the sockets something to grip on.

>:That's a good question!   Along the same line, why is the ground prong
>:round instead of flat like the other two?

To fit the round hole in the socket of course.  There are no stupid questions,
but if there were, that would be one of them. :-)

>Yes, and why the heck are manholes round?

So that the manhole cover cannot fall into the hole, as it could if they
were square.

		David Palmer
		palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu
		...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer
			"Flowers -- Just say NO!!"
					- Mighty Mouse