3 ms·

Can anyone confirm the articles assertion that " Before you 'grounded' your system, the AC voltage in general acted pretty safe for your customers. The only wa

• DanBC2 14y ago
  > It seems that if I stick my finger in the hot socket, there is still a path via me to 0 voltage (the ground) Over-simplified, but you need a complete circuit. In your example you say that voltage is across you - live at a finger and earth at your feet. But earth is not connected to the circuit, so there's no complete path. That's why the article talks about sticking rods into the Earth to create a ground connection. Now there is a complete circuit. (And this would be across your heart - the current flows through a finger, your arm, your heart, down your leg, and to Earth. This is especially dangerous, and is the reason you see test engineers working with one hand in their pocket. Not having two hands connected to live equipment means it's harder for a voltage across the heart.) There's another thing to mention though: Imagine wearing rubber boots, on a dry wooden floor, and jabbing a metal rod into the socket. That's still risky, because your body will act like a capacitor and the charge can be fatal.
• thought_alarm 14y ago
  In an isolated or ungrounded system there is no electric potential between the socket and ground, so the current has nowhere to go but back into the socket. Therefore, you only get shocked when touching both pins.