Don Young wrote:

"Bill" wrote in message
...

Hi All,

I just installed a ceiling light in my kitchen, and now I measure a
47V (AC) difference between the light's ground wire and its neutral
wire. Is this normal, or could the ground wire be floating?

Thank you,

-Bill
More than a few volts between the neutral and ground indicates that they are
not connected together. If they are properly connected together in the
entrance panel and the fixture is working, the ground is disconnected
somewhere (floating). Use a bulb in a pigtail socket to check this. It
should light from hot to neutral and from hot to ground. Be careful as a
floating ground can cause dangerous voltages to appear on supposedly
grounded metal parts, especially if you connect a load from hot to the
ground.

Don Young

Worst case is that the test light will illuminate connected from hot to
neutral. But it will be dim due to high voltage drop and the person
doing the test will not notice. A high resistance connection will get
HOT under load and may create a fire hazard. If a hot or neutral is wide
open, nothing works, but nothing gets hot.

--
Paul Hovnanian
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If everything is coming your way then you're in the wrong lane.