Dave Botsch wrote:

So, it's much more complicated, then, than the neutral and ground are
connected together at the breaker panel, thereby equalizing the
potential between the two, so, there shouldn't be a voltage
differential between the two (this only works if it's the same wire,
same current, and same length run)? And that the voltage between hot
and neutral and hot and ground should be the same because of that?


At the breaker panel their potential is equal. But as you go farther
from the panel, your "neutral" wire is not at the same potential as the
neutral in the panel because of the load current and resistance of the
wire. The ground wire never has current flowing though it under
non-fault conditions, so what you measure on any ground wire is the
potential of the neutral / ground bus at the panel.

Geo.