The Power of Three
“If some day they say of me that with my work I have contributed something to the welfare and the happiness of my fellow men, I shall be satis-fied.” — George Westinghouse
The three little pigs. The three branches of government. The holy trinity. The number three is an interesting number. Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
Long ago, Nikola Tesla recognized something special about the power of three. He started out working on a solution for an AC induction motor, and in the process, he ended up defining the familiar three-phase system of alternating current that we’ve come to know. We’ve been using three-phase power ever since. Now when you hook up power in most venues, there are three hot phases, a neutral and a ground.