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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is sponsored by Harry's dot Com. Get a

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Speaker 1: the factory that makes their blades. Fifteen dollars gets you

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Speaker 1: Go to Harry's dot com use the code brain stuff

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Speaker 1: to save five dollars off your first purchase. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com, where smart happens.

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Speaker 1: This podcast is brought to you by Audible dot com,

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Speaker 1: up today. Log on to audible podcast dot com slash

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Speaker 1: brain stuff today for details. Hi, I'm Marshall brain with

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Speaker 1: today's question. What do the yellow and black wires in

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Speaker 1: a home telephone jack do? In your house? You have

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Speaker 1: phone jacks, it only takes two wires to connect to phone,

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Speaker 1: but most house wiring contains four wires. The red and

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Speaker 1: green wires are on the two center terminals of a

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Speaker 1: normal phone jack, and the black and yellow wires are

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Speaker 1: on the two outer terminals. This arrangement allows most normal

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Speaker 1: houses to handle two phone lines very easily. Many, if

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Speaker 1: not most, of the line chords that you receive when

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Speaker 1: you purchase a phone to go between the wall jack

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Speaker 1: and the phone only have the two center wires. To

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Speaker 1: save money, The two outer wires are omitted when you

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Speaker 1: bring a second line into your house. This new line

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Speaker 1: uses the yellow and black wires. If you have a

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Speaker 1: two line phone, then the phone is normally ready to

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Speaker 1: accept the second line automatically on those yellow and black wires.

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Speaker 1: You plug one line cord into the phone and it

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Speaker 1: splits the two lines inside the phone. Make sure that

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Speaker 1: that line cord between the jack and the phone actually

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Speaker 1: contains all four wires for this to work. If you

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Speaker 1: want to connect something like a fax machine to the

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Speaker 1: second phone line, you can't just plug it into the wall.

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Speaker 1: You normally need to buy a little plug and converter

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Speaker 1: that takes the two outer terminals yellow and black of

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Speaker 1: the phone jack and brings them to the two center

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Speaker 1: terminals the red and green. You plug the converter into

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Speaker 1: the wall and then the fax machine into the converter.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast?

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Speaker 1: If so, please send me an email at podcast at

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is sponsored by Harry's dot com. Get a

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Speaker 1: great shaving experience for a fraction of the price. The

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Speaker 1: quality of the shave is so important that Harry's purchased

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Speaker 1: the factory that makes their blades. Fifteen dollars gets you

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Speaker 1: a set that includes a handle, three blades, and shave cream.

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Speaker 1: Go to Harry's dot com. Use the code brain stuff

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Speaker 1: to say five dollars off your first purchase.