I just added a circuit to my breaker box and it got me thinking about how the wiring all works. The neutral and ground both go to the bad bar in the circuit box, if they’re both in the same place then why can’t that just be wired inside the outlet and a single wire runs the length instead of two?
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You could use them the way you’re thinking (interchangeably) and the socket would still “work”. But it wouldn’t be safe.
The neutral is designed to carry the current back from the device in normal operating conditions.
The earth is designed to carry the fault current back from you (or something else) in fault conditions.
Earth is a safety wire. In normal circumstances you don’t “need” it, but in fault conditions you’ll be very glad you’ve got it.
Imagine a fault on a toaster where the live wire touches the metal casing of the toaster. The neutral isn’t touching the casing, so there’s no current: nothibg will trip. Until something touches the toaster to complete the circuit at which point there will be short circuit current.
That something could be you touching the toaster with current going through you to ground through your feet/hand touching the metal sink etc. Or you could just always make sure there’s a safety wire (earth) toucbing the toaster casing so that it takes the current instead of you.
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