Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderEven already knowing the gist of things, I enjoyed the description of the path-dependent incremental evolution here. But, this sentence makes me wonder about something: "Also, the clear-weather sky current can no longer build up a high voltage, if any excess charge immediately leaks into the earth." Have our region- and even continent-wide grounded electrical networks changed the expression of lightning storms, such that non-electrified areas are noticeably different?
The obvious follow up question, then, is: why does Japan use 2-prong outlets even today? Are Japanese people dying from electrical shock at a much higher rate than the rest of the world? Is Japan full of only Perfect Electricians? Or is this not actually the significant problem that this myth (in the etiological sense, not the fictional sense) would lead us to believe? The only 2-prong device I own is a (Japanese-made, of course) rice cooker. You'd think that…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 838
- Total comments
- 378
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-01-22 | Outlets, Grounding and the story of the third prong. | timr | 5 | 0 |
| 2012-06-02 | Why three prongs?First breakout · Best thread | xd | 581 | 146 |
| 2019-07-08 | Why Three Prongs? (1996)Latest 20+ point return | nkurz | 249 | 232 |
| 2023-11-07 | Why Three Prongs? | black6 | 3 | 0 |