I was reading Volume I, chapter 3, "Shock Current Path" of the e-book, and it says that grounding the neutral wire of a power system ensures that the wire is safe to touch. However, if you're holding just the neutral wire, and if the hot wire faults to the ground, can't a current go through the hot wire, through the ground and through your shoes, through you, and back through the neutral wire? If a tree knocks over a wire, there is a 50/50 chance it's the hot or neutral wire, so there's a 50/50 chance you will get shocked if you're holding the neutral wire.
If you didn't ground any of the wires, there's still a 50/50 chance you'll get shocked, depending on if the wire you're holding is the one that didn't fault to the ground.
So is it really beneficial to ground one of the wires? And is the statement that it is always safe to touch only the neutral wire since it's grounded false?
If you didn't ground any of the wires, there's still a 50/50 chance you'll get shocked, depending on if the wire you're holding is the one that didn't fault to the ground.
So is it really beneficial to ground one of the wires? And is the statement that it is always safe to touch only the neutral wire since it's grounded false?