"metspitzer" wrote in message
...
I was watching CSI. It is a great show.

Some guy falls 12 floors. His drill has been shorted and the ground
plug has been cut.

CSI says the GFCI is useless without the ground plug. false

In some cases that's true.

If his drill has exposed metal parts that were not connected to each other
then a combination of faults could make one piece of metal "hot" and the
other "neutral." If you use the drill you get the full 120 volts.

As an example, say you have a mostly plastic drill but the chuck and metal
and a couple of the screws that hold it together are metal. You use the
drill on something. You right hand is in contact with the screws that hold
it together and you left comes in contact with the drill chuck. ZAP.
And the GFCI would not trip.

If the ground was functional, the "cross" would likely cause a ground fault.

Don't get me wrong, what I outline isn't likely to happen. And
many/most smaller electric drills only have a 2 wire plug.


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