On Tuesday, November 26, 2013 8:16:40 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Tue, 26 Nov 2013 05:07:43 +0000 (UTC), Danny D'Amico

wrote:



On Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:52:34 -0500, clare wrote:



Only in some rather rare circumstances is the "ground" actually used

in place of a current carrying conductor



This reference from Smith College, Northampton, MA:

http://www.science.smith.edu/~jcarde...ecPwr_HSW.html



Says:

"The power company essentially uses the earth as one of

the wires in the power system. The earth is a pretty good

conductor and it is huge, so it makes a good return path

for electrons."



That's from an EE class:

http://www.science.smith.edu/~jcardell/Courses/EGR220/

EGR 220, Spring 2013, Engineering Circuit Theory



Taught by Judith Cardell, who researches this stuff:

http://www.science.smith.edu/~jcardell/



She should know, shouldn't she?

She is referring to the "safety groun d", not the neutral, or she is

"dumming it down". It IS still used as a ground return on a VERY small

basis in very limitted locations - as SWERT.



She SHOULD know, but obviously is not expressing her knowledge very

well.

Who is the "she" here? Unless I'm missing something, what I think Danny
showed us is the college having a copy of the same flawed explanation
that Danny has posted from 6 other places. It all appears to me to have
originated from the website "How stuff works", where that piece has
Marshal Brain as the author.