What happens if there's a short and you touch ground?

[JEDI]

ground is the alternate path for electricity to return, right?

so if there's a short, ground is used.

but if ground is connected to the water pipes (like in my parents house), doesnt that mean touching the faucet might electrocute you?

 

[dighn]

short between the power lines and ground? then yes it might. if the ground were perfect it wouldn't but they are not, so there may well be a noticeable potential difference between the pipe and your own ground

 

[jagec]

A metal connection to ground will have much lower resistance than your skin. Maybe if you coated yourself in salt water, stood on the grounding rod, and touched the faucet while a short was occurring (but before the circuit breaker blew) you'd get shocked.

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: JEDI
ground is the alternate path for electricity to return, right?

so if there's a short, ground is used.

but if ground is connected to the water pipes (like in my parents house), doesnt that mean touching the faucet might electrocute you?

only if you had lower resistance than the copper pipe to ground. Unless you're a superconductor, that would be quite unlikely.

 

[BoomerD]

Now if you touched the faucet while touching the faulty appliance...you get a Don King hairdo...:Q

 

[legoman666]

Originally posted by: jagec
A metal connection to ground will have much lower resistance than your skin. Maybe if you coated yourself in salt water, stood on the grounding rod, and touched the faucet while a short was occurring (but before the circuit breaker blew) you'd get shocked.

truth. You may end up with a few volts going through you, but it probably wouldnt be more than a tingle. Besides, the breaker would throw almost immediately anyway, thus decreasing the length of the fault to <1s.

 

[hypn0tik]

Path of least resistance = wire. You're safe.