On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 10:17:08 +1100, John G wrote:

If you had any understanding of electricity you could understand that
the GROUND is not part of the circuit.
It is there to keep all the parts of the system at the same reference
potential.

Well, I *thought* I understood electricity, in that without a "loop",
there would be no current.

What I *think* is the real answer, albeit it's hard grasp because the
earth itself is so huge, is that there *is* a loop with the power
company.

The loop starts with electrons being pulled from the ground, which
then go over the three hot wires where one of those three hot phases
is sent to your transformer primary, where the second lead of the
transformer primary goes into the ground, which completes the
circuit.

The fact that the earth is so huge that this completion of the
circuit isn't even noticed back at the power company doesn't mean
there isn't a loop.

It's just that the loop is one huge chunk of conductor (namely,
the earth itself).

But, it's my understanding that this still completes the loop.

For example, if I lifted the transformer primary wire so that
it no longer contacted the ground, that would immediately
stop the current that flows back into the ground, hence
breaking the loop.

Right?