xkcd #3186: Truly Universal Outlet
Title text:
Building Inspectors HATE This One Weird Trick
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3186/
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
486 points (98.4% liked)
xkcd
14648 readers
465 users here now
A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This also makes me wonder why the xkcd one was laid out like that. Is the xkcd one better/safer, or was it done that way to look more insane.
On yours, the Canada/US and UK layouts overlap, while in the xkcd one they're opposite to each other.
Yeah I think that's it lol
I think it's because mine doesn't have Schuko (type f) support ... probably because it's real? And maybe because his adaptation uses "Euro"/A combination, wheras mine uses vertical axes for the "euro" plug.
N/L are “reversed” on the UK BS1363 standard vs US/EU Earthed plugs. By having two sets of N/L you can ensure that they are always correctly wired.
This is often why some adaptors seem to be “upside down”
Most devices can handle N/L being swapped, though.