Question for the "electrical" Guru's

[Lawson Cox]

RELAX fellows. Just GO WITH THE FLOW" lol

[34fordy]

Originally Posted by Lawson Cox

RELAX fellows. Just GO WITH THE FLOW" lol

You're a little stinker counselor ! LOL

[wamnram]

The original poster asked: Why does polarity matter to some Volt meters/testers?

Answer: Because that is how some of them are designed. I believe specifically the probe he was using. Also, positive voltage is not the same as negative voltage.

34Fordy stated: My Fluke 78 meter reads DC current plus or minus depending on where I place the probes. On AC current it reads the same both ways, not plus or minus as it is alternating.

Reply: Because your Fluke is designed that way.

JayChicago: I think I read that solenoids don't care how they are hooked up. I think that is strange. It's an electric magnet. Why would it not be polarity sensitive? Why would it not pull the other way?
Today 02:21 PM,

Answer: Because a solenoid creates a magnetic field that draws an iron rod into the field. It does not matter the polarity of the field because the rod is not polarized, it's just a piece of iron.

Rockfla: IF it polarity can flow two ways THEN why not make all electronic test devices work both ways???

Reply: Nowadays, almost all electronic devices, especially meters, are designed and built to work both ways. The older a device is, the less this is so.

Hopefully this answers some questions without going too deep into electrical/magnetic theory. I don't want every one's eyes to roll up into their heads while muttering WTH? (Lawson, you da man!)

[rockfla]

Thank you Wayne.....SO....the still hanging question, on the larger view....IS why Henry Ford felt the need to go the opposite of what seems to be the "norm" by today's standard? What was his perceived advantage to the positive ground system?? Again, it seems as IF he was a Beta-Max man in a VHS world in my simplistic thinking brain cell and simplistic analogy!!!