system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Eli5: how do power strips work?

Like how does each socket get the same amount of power from one socket that the strip is plugged into?
gpt
A power strip is a very simple device. It's just a series of parallell connections that share the power from the same wall socket.

The reason why this works is that most of the time you only plug in one device that really draws a lot of power. Your average wall socket is rated for about 1500-1800 Watts.

So if you plug in your computer you have a 850 Watt power unit, you have a computer screen (80 W) a laser printer (400W) and a lamp (60 W if you use an old glowbulb). Total of 1420 W. Safe.

However, if you try to plug your hot water kettle and your microwave into the same powerstrip....more iffy. Most water kettles use up 1500W when they're running (yeah, it takes a lot of power to boil water quickly) and the microwave can be another 1000W on top of that. So never use those at the same time (or better yet. Don't plug them into a powerstrip and instead use different outlets) unless you want to burn out your fuses.