Article 400 Flexible Cords and Cable

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pfalcon

pfalcon

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Indiana
Is there a good distinction between cords and cables?

So far I've found
Cords are typically only in smaller sizes - but cables might be in those sizes too.
Cords are typically designed for indoor use only - but might be outdoor and a cable might be indoor only too
Cords are designed to be temporary installs while cables are designed for permanent installs - but what does that really mean?
400.7(B) does expect cords to have attachment plugs and be plugged into an outlet

So far it seems if it's a small size with anything but armor then the only difference is the attachment plug.
 
I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. [Emphasis added.]
?Justice Potter Stewart, concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 U.S. 184 (1964), regarding possible obscenity in The Lovers.
 
And to muddy the waters- IME in low voltage, a single conductor is a "wire", whether stranded or solid, and multiple conductors in a factory assembly, with out without a jacket, are a "cable".

We can fall back on Webster (having removed the irrelevant parts)-
Definition of CORD
1
a : a long slender flexible material usually consisting of several strands (as of thread or yarn) woven or twisted together
3
b : a small flexible insulated electrical cable having a plug at one or both ends used to connect a lamp or other appliance with a receptacle


Definition of CABLE
1
a : a strong rope especially of 10 inches (25 centimeters) or more in circumference
b : a cable-laid rope
c : a wire rope or metal chain of great tensile strength
d : a wire or wire rope by which force is exerted to control or operate a mechanism

3
a : an assembly of electrical conductors insulated from each other but laid up together (as by being twisted around a central core)


Definition of WIRE
1
a : metal in the form of a usually very flexible thread or slender rod
b : a thread or rod of such material
5
a : a line of wire for conducting electric current ? compare cord 3b
 
:blink: Which means I cut the plugs off both ends and my cord becomes a cable. Or I add a Harting connector body to one end and my cable becomes a cord. As long as the wire type appears in 400.4 in both cord and cable usage somewhere (which they don't). :rant:
 
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