Wires | Electricity | Physics | FuseSchool

A broken wire means two things;
1. It won’t work properly anymore.
2. It’s dangerous and shouldn’t be used.
In this video we’re going to look at wires, the wiring of a plug and why insulation is important.

Wires inside walls carry electricity to electrical sockets and lights in a house.
Whenever you plug in an appliance, you’re connecting it to an electrical circuit.
A appliance is anything that transfers energy from one form to another.
Different countries have different plugs, for connecting devices to the mains.

Each of the pins in the plug is connected to a different type of wire. We’re going to look at a 3 pin plug with 3 wires, but 2 pins are pretty much the same.

If we look inside a plug we can see the different wires.
The brown live wire
The blue neutral
And the green and yellow earth.

The brown live wire and the blue neutral wire carry the current around the circuit.

The live wire is the route into the plug for the electric current. The current is alternating current, which travels back and forth approximately 50 times a second.

The neutral wire completes the circuit. It is the route the electric current takes when it exits an appliance. Neutral wires have a voltage close to zero.

The green and yellow earth wire is a safety wire. Many electrical appliances have metal casings.
If a loose wire touches the metal casing, anyone who touches the appliance would get an electrical shock. Which is where the earth wire comes in. The earth wire connects to the earth pin, which takes the current away from the appliance into the wiring of your house and down to the earth through the house’s earthing system. So the current runs through the earth wire, rather than running through you if you touch the appliance. Much safer!
The earth pin on a plug is longer than the live and neutral pins. Therefore whenever you plug in a plug, the earth pin always connects with the socket first. Providing you with that earthing safety.

The fuse is a very thin wire between the live terminal and the live pin. It has a very low melting point, so if a too large current flows through the fuse, then the wire heats up and melts. Thus breaking the circuit. Which is why you might hear the phrase “the fuse has blown”. If there is a gap in the circuit, electricity cannot flow and so the device will not work, but the user is safe.
The main role of a fuse is to prevent fires starting, due to too large currents.
Another safety feature is the outer insulation of wires attached to plugs.
Plastic is an electrical insulator meaning electricity cannot travel through it. If electrical wires are surrounded by a plastic casing, then they are safe to touch. If there is a break in the plastic or it is damaged, you could come into contact with the wire inside and have an electrical shock. So do yourself a favour, if your phone charger looks like this, get yourself a new one!
Different countries have slightly different colour combinations for these wires, but they’re pretty much the same.

There’s a really easy way to remember where each wire goes…
Take the 2nd letters of the colours
BLue L Left
BRown R Right
STriped T Top

So there we have our current carrying live and neutral wires, and our protective earth wire and fire stopping fuses.



CREDITS
Animation & Design: Reshenda Wakefield
Narration: Dale Bennett
Script: Bethan Parry

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