This weekend, we visited my uncle on the North Shore. Outside his house, you could see a white transformer on a telephone pole across the street (it probably wouldnt have worked for the extra credit). The transformer either increases (step up) or decreases (step down) the amount of voltage running through the wires. In this case, it is a step down transformer from high voltage in the wires to 120 volts found in sockets. The ratio ofnumber of loops surrounding the iron cores indicates the ratio of the initial and final voltage.