Can some one explain to me how an electrical socket works?

Question

like the phase,earth,etc.......

Answer 1

Kev's answer is OK as to the powering of a socket in general terms. The mechanical description of a socket depends on which kind of socket you wish to know about. The 2 simplest types to understand are a lamp socket and an electrical outlet. In the first case, as most lamps (in the US, for example) operate on AC and really don't have a polarity concern, they still will connect the outside ring of the socket to the white wire or common side of the line and the base button of the socket to the black wire or load side of the line. The bulb filament is just a twisted wire that is connected from the threaded base of the bulb to the button on the bottom. In the second case, most modern sockets are now so called 3 wire sockets. They have a small round hole and 2 slots for the plug to go into. The round hole contact is wired to the green wire or ground wire and the other 2 to the black and white wires. The one slot is wider than the other and is connected to the white (or common) wire and the smaller one to the black (or load) wire. Many 2 prong plugs will still have the one wider prong so as to fit a socket with the 2 sizes of slots. A 3 prong plug has the third round prong that is fastened (internally) to the case of a lamp or other appliance.

Answer 2

It depends on what type of socket you are talking about. Residential circuits (in America) run at 120/240 volts. This is single phase. the 120/240 is given by running two hots and one neutral. The hot to hot voltage is 240V where the hot to neutral is 120V, this is useful as most stoves run at 240V but the light bulb in your stove runs at 120V. The voltage is delivered to your house in three phases but you will either see a transformer up on a pole, or green boxes on your lawn.