I accidentally let the two screwed wire terminals in a socket fall out of the socket. I know that the gold one is for the hot wire and the silver is for neutral....but once they have fallen out of the socket, how do I know which slot they each properly go back into?
If this a standard screw-in light socket, the gold/hot goes to the center contact, the silver/neutral goes to the screw shell.
See
No, not if you use a voltohmeter to see which screw goes to the center and which goes to the shell.
If you're going to be fiddling with electric stuff, you shoudl have one anyhow.
Home Depot deosn't seem to have the really cheap (but plenty good enough) digital meter anymore, but they have
In general it's worth a little more to have a digital meter, IMO, but they have one flaw in that they are so sensitive that they might show 20 or 30 votes in house wiring even when the circuit breaker is off, but if you remember that, they're more useful**. Analogue meters don't do that.
You put the setting on ohms, the section marked by an omega in Greek, and within that: ohms x 10 or times 100, or 200 or 2000, (but not on 20M or 200M because then you might end up measuring the resistance of your body). Put one lead on the shell and then put the other on each of the screw terminals until you find which one is conneccted to the shell. If neither is, you probably have the socket off so turn it on and try again. Well, actually the switch turns the center contact off, not the shell.
**For example, the Amazon one above has a hold button, so you can measure something when you can't see the meter and still read the setting even after the test leads are no longer in place. It doesn't come up very often, but it can. And it's auto-polarity. When it's not alternating current, there is positive and negative, but the meter figures it out, instead of requiring you to put the leads on right. More expensive ones are auto-ranging.
Your local Ace Hardware should have a cheap volt/ohmmeter. The local auto parts store should have some sort of circuit tester.
If you are talking about the plug or receptacle, the wide prong is neutral
Neutral goes to the "can", line goes to the "tip"
Test with a continuity tester or ohm-meter. If you don't have one have a friend who has one help you. The neutral terminal WILL line up with one of the rivets in the bottom of the "can"
Also remember that white is for weddings and black is for funerals. ;-)
That color scheme might be backwards judging by the number of divorces.
Robin McDaniel used his or her keyboard to write :
Sometimes one can wiggle the center contact and see which terminal wiggles - but a continuity check is the best way. even without a multimeter you can use a wire and a disassembled flashlight for continuity checks.
In Japanese culture, white is the color of death and one NEVER wears white for weddings.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.