"blackboab" wrote in message
oups.com...
The LIVE and NEUTRAL wires are both passing current and the current is
reversing at 50 times a second

yes

so that they swap over the roles of
positive and negative.

no

can i get electrocuted by holding the NEUTRAL ?


not if all is working properly (ie not wiring faults etc)

a circuit only needs two wires to be complete.

so how does the third wire - ground - fit in the circuit ?

it prevents dangerous voltages that might exist on metal parts of appliances
during fault conditions by connecting them to earth


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)