They are the same, sort of.

Originally home AC had two wires, hot and ground. When safety required a device's chassis be tied to the ground there arose a problem: which wire was which? To get around the problem of deciding which of the two lugs at the outlet was hot and which was not there was a time when the two lugs were made different sizes for polarizing purposes, but if the wiring job was botched there was the possibility that the hot and ground could be switched, which could lead to some shocking events to say the least. It was finally codified that there would be three leads off the AC panel, and that the wiring would be black for hot, white for neutral, green for ground, the ground being attached to the round third leg of the AC plug, and that chassis ground would always be attached to that round leg. That way if someone managed to mix up the black and white/hot and neutral wires the ground would still always be ground. This also ensures that there is a separate wire to lead to ground that does not also carry load current.

Early 3 wire AC panels had the neutral and ground busses tied together, but today that has changed, and technically now the ground buss is tied to the house ground rod while neutral is not. Still, at some point ground and neutral do tie together.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Please explain difference between neutral and ground - warnerwh 11:01:07 03/14/04 (12)

Re: Please explain difference between neutral and ground - hybwolf 11:49:50 03/15/04 (3)

Re: Please explain difference between neutral and ground - jneutron 13:33:54 03/15/04 (2)

Re: Please explain difference between neutral and ground - hybwolf 15:18:36 03/15/04 (1)

Very nice explanation.thanks.nt - jneutron 05:49:17 03/16/04 (0)

Re: Please explain difference between neutral and ground - jneutron 07:58:29 03/15/04 (1)

Appreciate the extra information - warnerwh 18:26:38 03/15/04 (0)

Additional rude fact - sam9 22:05:50 03/14/04 (1)

Re: Additional rude fact - warnerwh 18:29:16 03/15/04 (0)

They are the same, sort of. - Bill Fitzmaurice 20:17:32 03/14/04 (3)

Still, at some point ground and neutral do tie together. - Poindexter 20:50:25 03/14/04 (2)

Re: Still, at some point ground and neutral do tie together. - alley -kat 21:53:34 03/14/04 (0)

Thank you guys for the help - warnerwh 21:46:28 03/14/04 (0)

Follow Ups

They are the same, sort of. - Bill Fitzmaurice 20:17:32 03/14/04 (3)

Still, at some point ground and neutral do tie together. - Poindexter 20:50:25 03/14/04 (2)

Re: Still, at some point ground and neutral do tie together. - alley -kat 21:53:34 03/14/04 (0)

Thank you guys for the help - warnerwh 21:46:28 03/14/04 (0)

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