[sdiy] Neutral ground [was: midi optocouplers]

[James Patchell]

Yes...and no.  Neutral is the return path for the current from the hot 
line.  Earth (Ground) is not supposed to have any current flowing in it at 
all...it is ....just in case...

But yes...they are the same potential...or supposed to be (I lived in a 
house where Neutral would read about 50 volts above ground.....yikes!)

At 03:49 PM 12/12/2005 -0600, Woody Wall wrote:
>So does this mean that neutral and earth ground are the same? Or am I 
>missing something? It's been a long time since I studied this in school.
>
>Woody
>
>On 12/12/05, harrybissell 
><<mailto:harrybissell at prodigy.net>harrybissell at prodigy.net> wrote:
>>USA uses 120VAC...
>>
>>Hot will have 120V AC with respect to earth ground
>>
>>Neutral should have no voltage with respect to earth ground.
>>
>>They can get reversed sometimes... with disasterous results in
>>an audio system.  Having one chassis at 'hot' and another at
>>neutral can mean line voltage in an audio cable...
>>
>>H^) harry
>>
>>Karl Ekdahl wrote:
>>
>> > I'd really like to know what the "hot"/"neutral" is all about, here in
>> > sweden we've got no such thing but i'm moving to the US in a week so
>> > i'd better learn....
>> >
>> > Karl
>> >
>> > Samppa Tolvanen 
>> <<mailto:samppa.tolvanen at gmail.com>samppa.tolvanen at gmail.com> skrev:
>> >
>> >       We Finns are enjoying 230VAC with non-polarized mains
>> >      sockets.
>> >
>> >      Shouldn't We all agree the truth, there's NO neutral wire.
>> >      Just for newbies?
>> >
>> >      Grant said:
>> >      "It is a good idea to verify that your electronic music
>> >      studio wall
>> >      sockets are wired correctly.
>> >      I have seen strange things happen when neutral and hot are
>> >      reversed.
>> >      Even on transformer isolated equipment."
>> >
>> >      This sounds like badly designed equipment.
>> >
>> >      Samppa
>> >
>> >

         -Jim
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