So I bought a motorcycle that doesn’t work, and I’m trying to fix it up. I’m pretty new to electrical work, and having trouble with the concept of the ground. On my bike, the electrical components are grounded to the steel frame, and the negative battery terminal is also grounded to the frame.. so is the frame basically a conductor back to the negative terminal? Why is it not dangerous to be exposed like that unlike the insulated wires??
In general the concept of ground is a little hazy for me.
Thanks
In: Physics
So there are a couple of concepts in play here. First there is potential, voltage is a measure of how much potential energy there is in an electrical system, higher the voltage the greater potential. To jump through the human body, there needs to be a decent amount of potential. 12v you find in a car battery is not enough to jump through you without mitigating cases (wet hands, open wound, ect). Now the ground side of a battery is not at the same voltage as the ground you stand on, but the difference in that voltage very, very rarely gets above a full volt. Because of that, you can have the ground side exposed with no issue (certain systems actually use a ‘hot’ chassis instead of a grounded one, because again, 12v really won’t jump through you).
‘Ground’ is really misused in electrical systems. Earth ground is any point connected to the physical ground outside. However, circuit ground is the lowest voltage potential point in a circuit. Earth ground and circuit ground can and usually are at different voltage potentials from each other, in fact earth ground can be different from earth ground at a different point.
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