"Andy Burns" wrote in message
.. .
harryagain wrote:

"tony sayer" wrote in message

Have you got an Oscilloscope or not?..

No.

Well perhaps you should then you'll se what the mains really does look
like;!..

I saw it years ago. It was only a mildly interesting experience that I
wouldn't be interested in repeating.

I don't recall any significant "distortion". Just an occasional spike.

Why do you suppose the mains would have a non sine wave?

Theory and practice always agree in your world, don't they?

http://www.acoustica.org.uk/other/mains_noise.html


That sort of thing is caused by an iron core somewhere being driven into
saturation (ie overloaded.)
Probably a local transformer.