Like the title says what does it exactly mean when something is grounded? What does it serve for with humans and electrical system?
Also presume someone somehow gets zapped by a massive amount of energy from some source: is it safer or worse to be grounded and does it matter what we are grounded to?
In: Physics
Different places can have different levels of electrical charge. When you connect a place with high amounts of electrical charge to one with low amounts of electrical charge, they will attempt to balance out so the charge is even across the entire connection.
Think of filling your sink full of dirty dishes. The water may start on top of that plate precariously perched on a few pots, but it very quickly runs down to the bottom. Sometimes you’ll get pools of water in dishes/pots – until they overflow the edges and continue their journey down. But the basic principle is that the water wants to spread out evenly. Sometimes it just can’t.
‘Ground’ is the place where electrical charge is lowest and the high electrical charge is attempting to drain towards.
When something is ‘grounded’, that just means it is connected to ground.
Now, if I’ve got an electrical appliance, being ‘grounded’ is a good thing. That means the high electrical charges in the device are connected via a very efficient pathway to a place where there isn’t much electrical charge. The benefit of this is that the electrical charge won’t be taking the relatively low efficiency path through me if I touch the wrong thing.
Likewise, if I’m working on something electrically sensitive, I want to be grounded. I don’t want high electrical charges building up on my hands – that are touching the sensitive components – but instead dissipating elsewhere.
On the other hand, if I’m grabbing a power line, I absolutely do not want to be ‘grounded’ because I don’t want all that power flowing through me – I want it flowing down the power line.
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