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Ahh.. One side of your single-phase AC power soure *is* grounded at the source, meaning it literally is connected to the dirt outside your house. The other side is the actual AC supply, known as the "hot" or "live" wire. Only one of the two wires is hot.


Here's your homework for tonight: Get out your trusty old voltmeter, set it to the 200VAC range, and stick one probe into some moist earth in your yard, and the other probe into the hot spade socket of an electrical outlet (that's the right-hand side one of a 3-prong outlet when the round prong hole is on the bottom).

Cool, eh? Tell us what voltage you measured. I'll go out and do it here right now.. gimmeasec..

Cheers