I don’t know much about how plugs or electricity works, obviously, but I was taught that one side is the “positive”, one side is the “negative”, and the bottom (seemingly quite optional) is the “ground”. It’s odd to me that so few plugs use the “ground”, so it made me curious why it exists, and why it’s optional. Are there any safety benefits to having a “ground”, or safety concerns with not having one? Thank you!
In: Engineering
The alternating current coming out of a power socket is like a dog zooming back and forth between the positive and negative plugs represented by opposite sides of a backyard. Normally, this is okay if there are no other things in sight of the doggy.
But the doggy has a huge prey drive that represents how much electricity loves to flow from high potential to ground. If a squirrel comes within eye contact of the dog, the fence and other people could try and stop it, but it will run through them as eager as possible. With just two sockets, electricity can easily jump through objects (like people) if there is a path to ground.
Adding a ground prevents this by providing a direct ground to go through if the electricity leaks in any way. Often, electronics enclosures are grounded. This is like putting a tube for the running path of the dog so it never gets distracted enough to run out.
A ground has other advantages such as providing a fixed reference for signals in case certain circuits are noisy.
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