KE7GKP:
This is probably more definitive and authoritative than the mass of opinions presented here so far:
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_5/chpt_2/2.html
It also highlights some of the differences between IEC, UK, US, and Canadian power conventions.
Remember - this is America - land of graft and willful ignorance.
I have no respect for anyone dissing their own country (or anyone else's, for that matter.)
Threadjack ahead, and I apologize...
Kenneth Lay and Glenn Beck - need I say more (I seriously could go on for pages)?
Our country is hosed beyond belief; most of the population either doesn't care, or is helping it along down the path to ruin. There is little you or I can do to stop it; I'll continue to vote, for what little good (or bad) it does, I'll demonstrate where I can, and I will donate to those causes I think can help. Ultimately, though, it seems too little, too late - especially given the Overton window is so far out of whack that so-called democrats look and act almost like moderate republicans of the 1980s. That's supposed to be progress?
I'm supposed to cheer when so many states want to take away women's rights to their bodies; where our own government whined about such a small percentage of the budget over it, almost bringing the government to a dead halt - for some nearly infinitesimal portion of the budget?
I'm supposed to be quiet when the majority of Americans don't even understand evolution, and a great percentage want to teach our children creationism and intelligent design instead? I'm supposed to be silent when a large portion of the voting public make statements against being intelligent, so-called "anti-intellectualism" - that somehow being intelligent is "elitism"? WTFBBQ?
The honest fact is, a great portion of the voting public America seems to think Jesus is coming back any second (oh, maybe May 21st?), the end-times are a-comin', and even if they aren't, they're thinking they should maybe help it along. Rational discourse? Logic? The scientific method?
We just had a 2-bit preacher burn a freakin' book knowing full well what it could cause, and halfway around the world a bunch of other backwards-thinking people riled up by their leader did the expected thing and killed some people? Over what? A fairy tale.
This is the world and nation we've given our children. A world in which oil isn't getting any cheaper, but rather than cut the spending on the war machine here in the US, the spending is instead cut on alternative energy research. Rather than shore up our infrastructure, we cut the spending to the US Army Corp of Engineers - because who needs levies, huh?
This isn't a republican vs democrat thing, either. It's an "us" thing. We voted them in (we had little real choice), there ain't much we can do about it except sit back and watch the show.
/threadjack over :~