AudioBanter.com - View Single Post - Alternating Current means ALTERNATING current?

In article writes:

I have found that Electricians who have gone through the apprentice schools
do, as Phil suggests, use a different way of describing the phenomenon of
electrical current flow. In several conversations with journeyman
electricians I've come to believe that their way of thinking about
electrical circuits serves them well for wiring buildings and adhering to
electrical codes. But, for those of us who learned our electrical theory
from an electonic perspective, its hard to communicate.

To an electrician, there's no functional difference between AC and DC,
and only specialized electricians today ever deal with DC, at least in
the USA. It's all "electricity" and the instantaneous direction of
motion of the electrons is of no concern to his job.

There is nothing wrong with this way of thinking. Knowing that the
current reversed direction many times a second doesn't help him to do
his job any better. But understanding that one wire is "hot" with
respect to a reference point (and being able to identify that wire
without killing himself or someone else) allows him to do the job he's
hired for - get the electricity from one place to another.

To him, the neutral and the
'grounding neutral' had different jobs to do and, therefore, were different.

This is true. Disconnecting the neutral from the ground at the service
entrance won't make the lights go out (if the house is wired properly)
but having it properly corrected may save a life.

--
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