Why do circuit breakers go up for on and down for off?

Interesting. That problem had not occurred to me.

Correct my thinking if I'm wrong, but that can only happen with a properly grounded 3 prong outlet, right? If just two, hot and neutral, and you're using one of those adapters to plug the computer in, that problem would not exist. (of course there might be others!)

I once drove a BMW (not mine) and the indicators were very clever. Push in the appropriate direction to turn them on, push the other way to cancel (e.g. changing lanes where the wheel doesn't move far). However, linger a fraction too long on the cancel, and it starts indicating the other way...

I appreciate that not many BMW drivers actually know this from experience.

Sounds stupid. Firstly, when changing lane I don't push hard enough for it to latch. It indicates until I let go. Secondly, when you push back the other way to cancel (I never have to do this since indicators self cancel), you move it one click for off and two to indicate the other way, obviously.

The cancel on my Renault is insane. If I indicate right, I expect to have turned right before it will cancel when I straighten the wheel. But instead, if I indicate right, then turn the wheel left (eg. entering a roundabout), it turns off! Very basic design flaw, the little things that push the stalk back shouldn't exist until a bit further right on the wheel rotation. No other car has annoyed me this way.

BMW drivers aren't very bright. But their headlights are three times brighter than the regulations, which failed miserably when brighter more efficient bulbs were invented. Bring back 55/65W bulbs so we can see where we're going!

Unless it's part of a three-way. Then it might be either up or down, depending on what the second switch is doing.

The point was that this wasn't a mechanical switch that could be held partly on without latching. It was two buttons. Press one and the indicator comes on and stays on until there is enough movement of the wheel to cancel. Manual cancel was by pressing the opposite button for a very short time. It took me about a hundred miles on a motorway to get the hang of it.

The Construction and Use Regulations (fifty years ago) actually specified brightness, but as few people could measure this, it was normally quoted as approximate Watts with an incandescent (not QI) bulb.

Possibly the regulations have changed massively in this area, as many modern headlights are much brighter than would have been permitted then. The big increase on some cars came when CSI technology could finally be made rugged enough for automotive use. Not the bulb size, a

My late father-in-law had a phrase for drivers who cruised straight down the road for miles, never changing lanes or turning, with one of their directional lights blinking. He said that they were exhibiting their intention to make "an eventual right" [or left].

An invention waiting for a problem to solve. Do BMW drivers have really weak fingers so a mechanical switch is too difficult for them?

I heard it was because they simply specified watts (which back then was the same input as output). Now you get more out than you put in (assuming when we say watts of light we're talking about incandescant equivalent), you can have a 55W dipped LED which gives out 13 times more light than it should.

And dangerously bright. I have to engage full beam to stay on the road when a BMW approaches me at night. This usually makes them put on full beam, which isn't actually all that different!

I was driving along the motorway DURING THE DAY with a car behind me with a busted headlight which was like full beam because it was aiming upwards. He shouldn't have had any lights on during the day in the first place. Not very easy to signal to someone behind you their lights are too bright, so I sat in the fast lane going slower and slower until he got pissed off and undertook me. I accelerated and tailgated him with both my full beams on for the next 30 miles. He wasn't happy. I've never seen so many rude combinations of hand signals.

I thought you were going to have a go at me for hogging the fast lane. I do stay in it all the time, but that's because nobody ever overtakes me. With the odd exception. I slowed to 70 for a speed camera and the BMW behind me did not. Took the pig 5 miles to catch up.

I once saw that referred to (on a kid's toy) as a "flasher trafficator." Great way to teach your kids the wrong word so they can unlearn it later. Same with that nonsense with polite terms for s*it. It's not a poop or a smelly or a number 2, it's a S*IT.

To be fair, the sound from my car's indicator reminder is pitifully quiet at 100mph. And the flashing light isn't visible due to the health and softy airbag. Bring back the steering wheels you could actually see the instruments past. Not sure how we're supposed to know we're speeding....

shocking

Mine are mounted horizontally: left off, right on.

Ambiguous comment.

if you have twin switches controlling a light, that is certainly true. XOR is the standard pattern So both up or both down is off. One up and one down is on.

And when you have THREE switches controlling a light...it gets even more complex.

In the end is simply convention. Like driving on the left. No reason to do it that way, but you need to settle on one way only, to avoid confusion, if it matters.

e.g. UK railways signals were always horizontal for stop, but in the days of broken cables they moved from down=go (lower quadrant) to up=go (upper quadrant)...as this required less weight to unbalance them to failsafe.

Mostly though if a light aint on you toggle the switch.

Again at some point in the past people settled on a convention. It is marginally easier for a right hand person to apply torque to a right hand screw. I guess. Its no big deal.

Like railway gauges. 4' 8 1/2" is what it is, All sorts of reasons appear to exist as to why this is.

But no one really knows.

It is not so even if 'only two wires enter the house'. Conventionally any metal pipes entering it provide the earth.

Yes, same in UK.

Although if you fit RCBOs, you can go to a higher all house RCD trip level

(Most freezers will stay below zero fora week or more)

In the UK the standard option would be to go from a 30mA whole house trip to a 100mA whole house trip with separate RCBOs on each ring that had pluggable sockets on it (i.e. not light rings or cooker circuits that are hard wired.)

I must get around to fitting those...:-)

Some people seem to confuse left and right, not sure how, they must remember which hand they write with.

Bullshit. I've always seen them with on if they're the same way (not sure if there's a boolean word for that). Somebody must have fitted one end upside down, or twisted the wires inbetween.

No, since you can't predict what the other switch or switches is, you just move it.

Driving on the left makes more sense to me. Since the convention with everything (like writing) is to start on the left (except the filthy Muslim scum). So we drive on the left, and overtake on the right.

Why are there four lights? They add blue I think.

I can apply equal torque both ways. Even if you were correct, er.... you need to turn it the other way to undo....

The Roman's foot was a bit bigger?

Wrong. My earth joins the neutral in the meter box.

So I'm breaking the law with fuses then? I don't think so.

You can do what you like in your own home.