Always heard about it but never knew why.
In: Technology
You want electricity flowing in the circuit that’s made for it and nowhere else. In particular, you don’t want to have it flowing through you if you touch a device. There are two general ideas how to do that:
* Make sure nothing that can be touched is conducting electricity: Cover everything in insulating material.
* Make sure everything that can be touched is already at the same electric potential. No potential difference means no current. That common electric potential is the “ground” and it’s usually connected to the Earth itself.
It’s a bit like making something earthquake-proof by putting everything onto the floor. Now everything is at the same height and nothing can fall down any more.
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