304
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works to c/confidently_incorrect@lemmy.world

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/28693796

Check the comments of the original post for the stupidity.

For those of you without an electrical background, the diagram shows the protective earth connected directly to phase, with phase and neutral also joined.

Correctly wired, this would be a three pin plug, with the earth wire connected to the earth pin in the plug, with the other end connected to the metal casing of the appliance. This is a critical safety feature, which will cause the circuit protection to trip in the event a phase wire contacts the metal of whatever this is connected to.

If this was actually done, the most likely outcome is it would trip a circuit breaker, but if the neutral was broken, it would connect phase directly to the casing, and likely electrocute someone.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 59 points 2 weeks ago

It is long overdue that those companies can be held legally responsible for what their AI produces.

If i had drawn up and published such an image, I probably could be drawn in court. Time for AI companies to fall under the same rule.

There have been cases of people poisoned, people looking for psychological help getting recommended to commit suicide, etc.

Time to drag those companies in court.

[-] Aeri@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

To be fair you are incredibly stupid if you ask this technology to render critical instructions and don't cross-reference it with any actual concrete information.

I do think that these companies should be held responsible for some negative consequences of their actions but people are going to be stupid and hurt themselves no matter what.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ideonek@piefed.social 38 points 2 weeks ago

The day will come when Fuck AI and Confidently Inncorect will have no choice, but to merge into one community.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] balsoft@lemmy.ml 23 points 2 weeks ago

If this was actually done, the most likely outcome is it would trip a circuit breaker

Or explode the plug in someone's hand, depending on the circuit breaker and the wire gauge

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 weeks ago

On a domestic plug the chances of injury are low, but not zero. It would definitely damage both the plug and socket, possibly burn your hand, and definitely be an exciting moment.

[-] balsoft@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 weeks ago

I've had a cheapo electric kettle plug explode in my hand due to melted contacts in the base touching each other (I'm not sure why the plug exploded and not the base, probably a shitty connection in the plug). I didn't get injured but it was indeed quite exciting.

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 7 points 2 weeks ago

I had a cheapo Chinese charger explode in the socket. It was indeed quite exciting.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] HejMedDig@feddit.dk 8 points 2 weeks ago

If done that way, it wouldn't even fit into a socket. Prongs are rotated 90°

[-] balsoft@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Huh, yeah, you are right. I'm not from the US so it didn't immediately jump out at me

[-] FrederikNJS@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah... I tried to ask it in Danish, and this is what it came up with...

I've assembled a few plugs myself... And this certain isn't quite how I did it...

EDIT: This was actually Gemini 2.5 Pro... But it's not very "pro"

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] hildegarde 15 points 2 weeks ago

everything about this is wrong. the most fundamental part is the fact that you don't wire north american plugs. Wiring your own plugs is a british thing, hence why the case is shaped like the british plug.

[-] Steve@startrek.website 12 points 2 weeks ago

Home Depot has a whole big shelf of north american plugs that anyone can wire up however they want.

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 11 points 2 weeks ago

In fact it was compulsory in Britain until the 1980s/90s. I'm not sure exactly when it changed, but the reason was due to different electricity companies having different sockets (and therefore plugs). It was standardised way before then, but I guess if that's the way it has always been done nobody thinks of changing it.

[-] jabjoe@feddit.uk 10 points 2 weeks ago

My oldest (15) was just taught how to wire a plug at her high school. We're in the UK. I don't think I was (90s), but my dad will had shown me and I don't remember not knowing.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 14 points 1 week ago

This device is useful for exercise. You will need to walk to the panel to flip the fuse every time you use it.

[-] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

I was taught to call the neutral "common" cause neutral makes it sound safe.

Typically in a US house it should be safe. Just assuming it is actually safe on the other hand is profoundly unsafe.

[-] TwiddleTwaddle 6 points 1 week ago

Incorrect. The neutral wire is a current carrying conductor and will generally be just as "hot" as the hot wire.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Image being confidently incorrect in the comments of a confidently incorrect post.

Under normal circuit conditions, the only voltage present on Neutral would be whatever voltage loss is occurring between the load and the tie in point between neutral and earth.

[-] TwiddleTwaddle 7 points 1 week ago

Different circumstances are different. Neturals are current carrying conductors. Neutrals are also grounded (as in bonded to ground at the main panel). In the case of someone wiring a recepticle or making joints in a junction box without turning off the circuit, one side of the neutral will almost certainly become disconnected from its return path in that process. When doing electrical work you absolutely do not consider the N wire safe for this reason.

Sure, if you touch the N lug in a hot panel or the N side of a receptacle while everything's properly wired you won't get shocked, but nobody has any reason to touch the N conductor if you aren't working working on the circuit/box/panel. I'll admit my use of "generally" above isnt exactly appropriate when you consider that a home doesnt "generally" have someone working on the wiring. Similarly my "incorrect" at the comment above me is less than 100% accurate, but I maintain that in the case of actual electrical work being done (the only time this conversation matters) you can never consider N to be safe.

All circuits are hot. All guns are loaded. All knives are sharp.

Isn't the common used in three way circuits as a hot at some point? Been decades since I learned about those, so my memory is very vague.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] yourgodlucifer@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

Actually it wouldn't do anything because you would not even be able to plug it in since the prongs are facing the wrong way and therefore would not fit into the socket.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

That's also a fair point, I'm not familiar with this particular plug, so didn't pick up on that right away.

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There's no live wire in this diagram. There is a section of black wire that is labeled "live", but it's just connecting the ground wire to the top prong with no voltage applied. The unlabeled white wire shorts them together. If the white wire was cut, then the top prong would be ground.

This is just a fancy way to short neutral and ground.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 9 points 1 week ago

Until you plug it in. Then it's a weird way to test your GFCI.

[-] 4am@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

It’s a plug, not an outlet. I made the same mistake because it’s such an astonishingly bad diagram.

Hot phase comes in from the prong, travels to the screw via black wire, then directly into ground.

Of course, it’s a moot point because you cannot plug this into a North American outlet, the prongs are in the wrong position.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

There is no ground plug in this diagram, only phase and neutral. With the ground connected to phase.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] theneverfox@pawb.social 9 points 1 week ago

No you won't... The "live" wire is just shorting neutral to ground. You'd need a second, far worse, problem for this to do anything

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

but if the neutral was broken

Isn't that what I said though?

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] 30p87@feddit.org 9 points 1 week ago

I've wired plugs with like 12 and a large part of our house with 14 or so. Ofc, with my dad and depending on the circumstances a qualified electrician checking, but no matter how wild it got, I never made a mistake

How are there people needing help to simply wire a plug? The hardest part is to open that damn thing!

[-] SketchySeaBeast@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 week ago

Ofc, with my dad and depending on the circumstances a qualified electrician checking, but no matter how wild it got, I never made a mistake

This is you saying you got help wiring a plug.

What if people don't have their dad or a qualified electrician to check? They need help from somewhere. AI is a stupid place to look for it, but people need help doing things they never have before. Would you prefer they guess?

[-] 30p87@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago

I never had a simple plug or socket checked after my first five or so. For larger networks, I just shared the plan I made in my head. And the qualified electrician was there once, for the HV lines, as legally required.

Also, not guess, but know. It's very easy, especially plugs and sockets. Switches I can see someone pulling up the manufacturers docs to check which contacts are interconnected.

[-] SketchySeaBeast@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago

Yes, after your first five, but before that you needed help. If this is someone's first what are they do to? How are they supposed to know without getting some sort of help?

"It's easy, just do like my dad showed me!* isn't helpful if they don't know your dad.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

Someone replied to me saying this picture of a plug is a dead circuit, because nothing is connected to anything, they genuinely don't seem to understand what a plug is.

They walk among us.

[-] Speculater@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

To be fair, this circuit is absolutely safe at long as the breakers are installed.

Edit: Because this will trip the circuit breaker. It's a short y'all.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

And the neutral is unbroken.

You're putting a lot of faith in the rest of the installation.

[-] Speculater@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I was being tongue in cheek. This will pop the circuit breaker, but to your point, may cause a fire with the insulation of the neutral. So I admit, it's not "perfectly safe." Lol.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Forgot to add “safely” to the prompt.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

For anyone else confused, the comments that OP is talking about are those from the cross-post: https://lemmy.nz/post/28693796

[-] Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 3 points 1 week ago

Do you have dc in your plugs in usa or did the ai mess it up so much

[-] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Even with dc this is fucked, + and - are shorted. Its fucked regardless

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

No, those plugs are 110-120v ac

Edit: assuming this is supposed to be a standard plug, which should have the prongs side by side not on top of each other.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
304 points (100.0% liked)

Confidently Incorrect

4609 readers
1 users here now

When people are way too smug about their wrong answer.

Posting guidelines.

All posts in this community have come from elsewhere, it is not original content, the poster in this community is not OP. The person who posts in this community isn’t necessarily endorsing whatever the post is talking about and they are not looking to argue with you about the content in the post.

You are welcome to discuss and debate any topic but arguments are not welcome here. I consider debate/discussions to be civil; people with different opinions participating in respectful conversations. It becomes an argument as soon as someone becomes aggressive, nasty, insulting or just plain unpleasant. Report argumentative comments, then ignore them.

There is currently no rule about how recent a post needs to be because the community is about the comeback part, not the topic.

Rules:

• Be civil and remember the human.

• No trolling, insults or name calling. Swearing in general is fine, but not to insult someone.

• No bigotry of any kind, including homophobia, transphobia, sexism and racism.

• You are welcome to discuss and debate any topic but arguments are not welcome here. I consider debate/discussions to be civil; people with different opinions participating in respectful conversations. It becomes an argument as soon as someone becomes aggressive, nasty, insulting or just plain unpleasant. Report argumentative comments, then ignore them.

• Try not to get too political. A lot of these posts will involve politics, but this isn’t the place for political arguments.

• Participate in good faith - don’t be aggressive and don’t argue for arguements sake.

• Mark NSFW posts if they contain nudity.

• Satire is allowed but please start the post title with [satire] so other users can filter it out if they’d like.

Please report comments that break site or community rules to the mods. If you break the rules you’ll receive one warning before being banned from this community.

This community follows the rules of the lemmy.world instance and the lemmy.org code of conduct. I’ve summarised them here:

  1. Be civil, remember the human.
  2. No insulting or harassing other members. That includes name calling.
  3. Respect differences of opinion. Civil discussion/debate is fine, arguing is not. Criticise ideas, not people.
  4. Keep unrequested/unstructured critique to a minimum.
  5. Remember we have all chosen to be here voluntarily. Respect the spent time and effort people have spent creating posts in order to share something they find amusing with you.
  6. Swearing in general is fine, swearing to insult another commenter isn’t.
  7. No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia or any other type of bigotry.
  8. No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS