Hello! I'm super excited to have found this forum, been looking for something like this for ages (I'm spanish and one day I thought...try it in english, duh!)

Ok here's my question. Why does a ground connection prevent electrocution in case of shortcircuit? Shouldn't I (i.e. the victim) be just another path for the current to go to?

I assume that I offer more resistance than the cable that goes down the ground but... some electricity should go through me to the ground as well, right?

Thanks!!

 

Hello! I'm super excited to have found this forum, been looking for something like this for ages (I'm spanish and one day I thought...try it in english, duh!)

Ok here's my question. Why does a ground connection prevent electrocution in case of shortcircuit? Shouldn't I (i.e. the victim) be just another path for the current to go to?

I assume that I offer more resistance than the cable that goes down the ground but... some electricity should go through me to the ground as well, right?

Thanks!!

Yes, but if the connection to ground offers low enough resistance, the current going through you will be negligible. Also, if you have a fuse or circuit breaker on the circuit, the low resistance path to ground should blow/trip it, while the amount of current going through just your body may not be enough to do that (since your body will look like just another load to it).

 

So even if you have a ground connection, you could get a little of electroshock? Maybe so little you can't even feel it?

Thank you! It was really bugging my mind

 

So even if you have a ground connection, you could get a little of electroshock? Maybe so little you can't even feel it?

Thank you! It was really bugging my mind

Always remember two things about current viz.
1. Current always takes lowest resistance path.
2. The amount of current will be decided by load not the source.

Hope that helped!

 

You know, I'm starting to doubt the first part of my answer. That is, if your house had no circuit breaker and could deliver any amount of current, I'm not so sure that having a path from the chassis to ground would reduce the amount of current a person touching the chassis would suffer. Since the hot-to-person-to-ground path is parallel to the hot-to-chassis-to-ground path, both paths would have the same voltage across them, which is the same as the voltage between hot and ground. As long as mains could deliver as much current as needed, I believe a person would still get the same amount of current through them whether or not there was a safety ground. What I believe the safety ground accomplishes is tripping the circuit breaker.

Could someone with more knowledge than me (that would be almost anyone) chime in?

 

What I believe the safety ground accomplishes is tripping the circuit breaker.

Could someone with more knowledge than me (that would be almost anyone) chime in?

That's how I believe it works too - the much lower resistance path from the mains directly to ground compared to the person to ground path enables the fuse/circuit breaker to become open circuit before you get fried. I think that time is an important factor.

Residual current devices (RCDs) achieve the same result without a ground connection by detecting any imbalance between the current flowing into a device from the live side and that returning on the neutral side on the premise that the difference is flowing to ground where it shouldn't be!

 

The difference in resistance between a human body and a chassis ground is on the order of 1000:1 or even 10,000:1 so when you do the math treating them as parallel resistances connected to the same voltage source (whichever mains peak value you choose), it becomes apparent that the low resistance path of the chassis ground prevents the current through the human reaching harmful levels.

Consider the case of high voltage line workers wearing faraday suits.

 

The difference in resistance between a human body and a chassis ground is on the order of 1000:1 or even 10,000:1 so when you do the math treating them as parallel resistances connected to the same voltage source (whichever mains peak value you choose), it becomes apparent that the low resistance path of the chassis ground prevents the current through the human reaching harmful levels.

Consider the case of high voltage line workers wearing faraday suits.

It would depend on the impedance of the source emf, surely? If that was low enough, as vpoko points out indirectly, the voltage across the body would be that same as that across the grounding circuit and hence the current would related to the body's impedance, irrespective of the lower resistance path to ground.

 

That's true, but even without a breaker or fuse, the conductors would quickly melt open. The human just hopes the supply opens before the chassis ground does.

 

That's true, but even without a breaker or fuse, the conductors would quickly melt open. The human just hopes the supply opens before the chassis ground does.

Haha - I'm a pessimistic bugger - I think I'll stick to my breakers and earth leakage devices!

 

I'm more confused than before then

From what you said, I'm guessing then that the usefulness of the ground connection is to make the fuse go off and cut the voltage before you get fried? If that's the case, then the ground connection doesn't make the current go down the earth SO it doesn't go through you. Current will also go through you depending on your impedance, because it's in parallel.

Mmm?

(so i guess it's useless to have a ground connection without a safety fuse in the house/wherever?)

 

(so i guess it's useless to have a ground connection without a safety fuse in the house/wherever?)

More than that, it's probably useless to have a house without fuses or breakers because it'll burn down sooner or later. As KJ6EAD said, a conductor (wire) somewhere would melt open if nothing else limited the current, and hopefully it wouldn't be near anything flammable.

 

I'm more confused than before then

From what you said, I'm guessing then that the usefulness of the ground connection is to make the fuse go off and cut the voltage before you get fried? If that's the case, then the ground connection doesn't make the current go down the earth SO it doesn't go through you. Current will also go through you depending on your impedance, because it's in parallel.

Mmm?

(so i guess it's useless to have a ground connection without a safety fuse in the house/wherever?)

This is why circuit breaking safety devices are installed where the current enters the building, thereby cutting the power to the whole of the circuit.