Timeline for Which way should be "on" for a switch?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
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| Feb 22, 2023 at 19:36 | comment | added | Ruslan | @Kevin from what I observe, at least also in Kazakhstan and Mauritius light switches are down-to-turn-on. | |
| Jun 16, 2020 at 10:51 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| Dec 12, 2015 at 20:52 | comment | added | Nzall | @jackmaddington I know that. The problem is "Which direction should be the on position of a switch?" And I am just trying to say that there are situations where the position of the switch and the state of the device the switch controls are not tightly coupled. In such a case, the direction of the on position of the switch can change depending on the sequence of actions performed on the system as a whole. My second floor hallway light has a switch on both floors to turn it on or off and the position of the switches is not linked. The bottom switch can be in either position with the light on. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 15:02 | comment | added | Jack Maddington | @NateKerkhofs, yes but this is not the lovelyness of discreteness, or is it perhaps a live of sequences; maybe both, so, whatsoever, the world goes on and on and on. Don't forget we're trying our best to solve a "problem". | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 14:47 | comment | added | Jack Maddington | @KateKerhofs, this is what I originally had, parallelly-aligned versus cross-aligned. I would pick, from a purely psychological perspective... well, I couldn't decide. So, suggest some other way. Perhaps two equally functionin switches on each side with two lights, and then the reverse, with two walls. And then with the 4 lights and 8 switches there would still be plenty to decide. Some "derangements" set free would make a king's palpable toy switch. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 13:15 | comment | added | Jack Maddington | From a side which had not been standardized. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 13:13 | comment | added | Jack Maddington | Was wondering what "parts let us call 'em", of Japan, have their switches' directionaliy set, whether they'd be moving towards a more specific direction, and if so, at what pace if there isn't one standard for it in place already (what if for instance one part of the switch was uncomfortable to touch or sth, maybe it had a protruding light bulb a blind person could easily break if coming into contant with the switch at an extensive speed. | |
| Aug 7, 2014 at 10:01 | comment | added | Nzall | Please note that if you have 2 switches for the same function, you are not guaranteed to have the button state and power state always be consistent. For example: if you have a light switch at each end of a corridor, someone can turn on the light at switch A, and turn it off at switch B, leading to the light being in the same state as before, but both buttons being in the opposite state from before they were pressed. | |
| Mar 14, 2013 at 10:42 | vote | accept | JohnGB♦ | ||
| Mar 13, 2013 at 22:12 | comment | added | jvangeld | I/O is the most miserable way to label a switch that I can imagine. Yes, I understand the binary interpretation now. But there have been so many times when I have been trying to get an engine to start when the logical interpretation has seemed to be: "I" means that something is closed, therefore nothing can pass through it, therefore "I" means off. "O" means that something is open, therefore things can pass through it, therefore "O" means on. This leads to frustration. | |
| Mar 13, 2013 at 4:13 | comment | added | naught101 | Those I/O switches aren't inconsistent, one of them is just up-side-down :P | |
| Mar 12, 2013 at 17:56 | comment | added | joshuahedlund | @MichaelKjörling true, but I often have trouble remembering which symbol represents "on", especially in the heat of troubleshooting when something in "|" acts "off", and I start thinking things like maybe "O" = "open"? etc. | |
| Mar 12, 2013 at 15:58 | comment | added | Kevin | Actually, it's just UK and Ireland that are reversed. In Australia and New Zealand, the light switches are the same as ours, it's the countries that are upside-down. | |
| Mar 12, 2013 at 15:14 | comment | added | user |
Note that of your examples, only the ones with ON and OFF written on it can't trivially be mounted with either short side up. I think that's a big reason why the on state is represented as a simple vertical bar rather than a more elaborate 1: you can mount it either side up and it will look the same to the casual observer.
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| Mar 12, 2013 at 13:32 | history | edited | Benny Skogberg | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added wikipedia reference
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| Mar 12, 2013 at 13:18 | history | answered | Benny Skogberg | CC BY-SA 3.0 |