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I am from India. My household supply is 230V, 50 Hz. Now I want to observe the AC supply from the switch board using oscilloscope.Is it ok ? How to do it?(I mean just a resistor attenuator is sufficient?)What precautions I need to follow? Does it really look like a sine wave?

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    \$\begingroup\$ As a general rule DO NOT PLUG THE OSCILLOSCOPE PROBE TO YOUR HOUSEHOLD SUPPLY. Sorry caps, but you'll probably trigger the switches. \$\endgroup\$
    – Andrés
    Commented May 20, 2018 at 12:33

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  1. It really looks like a sine wave (because it is a sine wave.)

  2. You would do better to find a wall wart that puts out AC than to try to put something together yourself.

An AC wallwart is nothing but a transformer. It will lower the line voltage to something low enough for your oscilloscope to measure.

More importantly, it keeps you away from high voltages.

As a handy side effect, it prevents your oscilloscope from causing a short circuit (with associated flash, bang, and circuit breaker trip) when you accidentally connect the oscilloscope ground to the live wire of the outlet.

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