Skip to main content
Search IntMath
Close

More crazy non-standard standards - power plugs

By Murray Bourne, 17 Oct 2006

I'm off to Bali this afternoon and I wanted to remind myself of the kind of power plugs they use.

Why do we have so many incompatible power plugs?

This site lists different plugs for different companies: International Power Plugs.

I see that the plug we use in Singapore is the same one that is used in the UK, UAE, Hong Kong, Iraq and Malaysia. Hmmm - the British Empire at work, wot?

British electrical plug

So why are we in this silly situation where countries insist on using their own weights and measures (even though they are officially "metric" countries), not driving on the same side of the road and not being able to share TV or mobile phone specifications?

I have to agree it makes money for lots of people, but surely it would be better to make more money because of the efficiencies gained from having common standards?

See the 1 Comment below.

One Comment on “More crazy non-standard standards - power plugs”

  1. Michael says:

    I think we're still just grappling with the implications of a truly global community (and economy). It will take quite some time for things like power points to become standardised across the globe.

Leave a comment




Comment Preview

HTML: You can use simple tags like <b>, <a href="...">, etc.

To enter math, you can can either:

  1. Use simple calculator-like input in the following format (surround your math in backticks, or qq on tablet or phone):
    `a^2 = sqrt(b^2 + c^2)`
    (See more on ASCIIMath syntax); or
  2. Use simple LaTeX in the following format. Surround your math with \( and \).
    \( \int g dx = \sqrt{\frac{a}{b}} \)
    (This is standard simple LaTeX.)

NOTE: You can mix both types of math entry in your comment.

top

Tips, tricks, lessons, and tutoring to help reduce test anxiety and move to the top of the class.