Yeah, none of this is real. The idea is that a standards organisation would find that idea of state-specific plugs scary enough to put in a haunted house, since it would be an extreme example of what they work to prevent.
Not a yank, but according to my research historically some states (and even some cities) had dissimilar voltages, amperages, and plugs, and even a choice of alternating vs nonalternating current. Sort of like how the poms have 100V instead of our 240V but with only a few kilometres of distance involved, dependant on power company.
Knowing what the different States are and different cities (for the title text) is pretty important. As someone who is from outside the United States, I wouldn’t’ve been surprised if “Pennsylvania Wiring” was really a standard of wiring.
Welcome! If you need to charge your phones, note that this house has Yokohama wiring, but we have Nagoya and Shikoku adapters available.
You can leave at any time through the door over there. It’s a shoji door, so you’ll need to find a compatible knob. No, don’t be silly, that one is a fusuma knob! Of course it won’t fit.
Can someone explain this for folks whose existence is outside the US
Are not standardised
Wait are the us plugs not standardized???
They are, the joke is that non standardized plugs would be a logistical nightmare…
Oh okay, sorry im pretty bad at getting jokes
Yeah, none of this is real. The idea is that a standards organisation would find that idea of state-specific plugs scary enough to put in a haunted house, since it would be an extreme example of what they work to prevent.
It’s just not a good joke.
The joke is that it’s a haunted house for the standards organizations.
You just weren’t smart enough to get it
K
That was a bit rough earlier. I had just woken up, my b
ExplainXKCD to the rescue :D
Thank you! I never knew this existed. Awesome!
Not a yank, but according to my research historically some states (and even some cities) had dissimilar voltages, amperages, and plugs, and even a choice of alternating vs nonalternating current. Sort of like how the poms have 100V instead of our 240V but with only a few kilometres of distance involved, dependant on power company.
It’s not important to the joke.
Knowing what the different States are and different cities (for the title text) is pretty important. As someone who is from outside the United States, I wouldn’t’ve been surprised if “Pennsylvania Wiring” was really a standard of wiring.
It would’ve been the exact same gag if these were Italian or Japanese or whatever.
As someone not from the American northeast, I don’t get it either.
As someone from the American northeast, i don’t get it either.