Brain Stuff is sponsored by Harry's dot com. Get a great shaving experience for a fraction of the price. The quality of the shave is so important that Harry's purchased the factory that makes their blades. Fifteen dollars gets you a set that includes a handle, three blades, and shave cream. Go to Harry's dot com use the code brain stuff to say five dollars off your first purchase. Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com where smart happens.
I am Marshall brain with today's question, why does the phone still work when the electricity goes out? If you have a wired phone that plugs into a phone jack in the wall, you've probably discovered that your phone works even in a power failure. One of the relative miracles of modern times is the reliability of the landline phone system. The power goes out fairly often for most people. Sometimes it's only out for a second, but other times it can be out for minutes, hours, or even days. Your
landline telephone, on the other hand, is always working. Why is that? Between your house and the phone company office, there's a dedicated pair of copper wires for your phone. Those wires are almost always buried, so ice storms and hurricanes won't cut them. The phone company supplies the power that your phone needs using that dedicated copper pair. The phone company uses batteries or generators to keep the power going even if there's a power failure, so your phone
is basically gonna work all the time. Many cell phones offer this feature as well. Your cell phone runs off batteries, and the cell phone tower has generators that they use in power failures, so your cell phone will probably work all the time as well. But if you use a cordless phone in your house, it will stop working in a power failure. That's because the base station plugs into the wall for its power. If you want to keep that phone working, you need to connect the base station
to an uninterruptible power supply. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is sponsored by Harry's dot Com. Get a great shaving experience for a fraction of the price. The quality of the shave is so important that Harry's purchased the factory that makes their blades. Fifteen dollars gets you a set that includes
a handle, three blades, and shave cream. Go to Harry's dot com use the code brain stuff to save five dollars off your first purchase.