— in electrical work NEUTRAL and GROUND both seem like the same concept to me. what is the difference???

Question

edit: five year old. we’re looking for something a kid can understand. don’t need full theory with every implication here, just the basic concept.

edit edit: Y’ALL ARE AMAZING!!

In: 4172

Answer 1

In a lot of scenarios there isn’t much of a difference. Its a safety feature.

If everything works well the live and neutral should be all you need.

If something goes wrong the earth acts as a second neutral to take all the current away from the fault (i.e. you) and safely back to complete the circuit. Its a safety feature.

In reality the earth usually has protection on it to detect current and trip the circuit too. And some devices even use a functional earth that does useful stuff. In super fancy designs it gets even more complex. But for eli5 just thinking of it as a safety wire is good enough.