Hello,
I am still a novice in electronics and was pondering on the idea of earth ground.
We generally connect our appliances to the ground for safety in case the hot wire, due to a short circuit, touches the metal case. IF we accidentally touch the case, the current through our body then ground then back to the source would be small...
We assume that the case connection to the ground has a very very small resistance so that junction is not the issue. The negative terminal of the power source is also connected connected to ground. Essentially, planet earth plays the role of a huge conductor....But wouldn't earth (dirt, etc.), as a conductor, have a very large resistance?
For example, if I took a 12 battery, a resistor, a lightbulb and closed the circuit with planet earth instead of using a simple wire, I don't think the bulb would light up...Am I wrong? This should be true at DC and AC
Thanks!
I am still a novice in electronics and was pondering on the idea of earth ground.
We generally connect our appliances to the ground for safety in case the hot wire, due to a short circuit, touches the metal case. IF we accidentally touch the case, the current through our body then ground then back to the source would be small...
We assume that the case connection to the ground has a very very small resistance so that junction is not the issue. The negative terminal of the power source is also connected connected to ground. Essentially, planet earth plays the role of a huge conductor....But wouldn't earth (dirt, etc.), as a conductor, have a very large resistance?
For example, if I took a 12 battery, a resistor, a lightbulb and closed the circuit with planet earth instead of using a simple wire, I don't think the bulb would light up...Am I wrong? This should be true at DC and AC
Thanks!