Article View: sci.electronics
Article #17693Re: resistance of earth ground
From: JL
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1987 23:48
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1987 23:48
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1652 bytes
> wolfgang@haddock.UUCP (Wolfgang Rupprecht) writes:
> > What is the resistance of earth ground? Let's say we have two
> > good connections to the earth, say two Chevettes :-), dropped into the
> > ocean, one into the Pacific and the other Atlantic. With an ohm-meter
> > connected between them, what kind of resistance can I expect to see?
...explanation...
> Getting back to the example, the Chevettes make pretty good contact
> with a lot of ocean, so the resistance would probably be damn close to
> zero.
>
> Dale
Oh, my.
1.) No matter HOW good the local contact, you are still limited
by the intervening material, which has a VERY low resistance.
Even though there is a LOT of the material, the net result is
a VERY VERY HIGH resistance. We are talking >> Megaohms here!
2.) If this were not true, you could well expect to electrocute
a fair portion of the world any time a power-line came into
good contact with the ground or water (which happens fairly
often in storms that blow power lines down,...).
--
Jay-El
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!sri-spam!mordor!lll-tis!ptsfa!ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!fornax!jl From: jl@fornax.uucp (JL) Newsgroups: sci.electronics,sci.physics Subject: Re: resistance of earth ground Message-ID: <327@fornax.uucp> Date: Sat, 27-Jun-87 19:48:15 EDT Article-I.D.: fornax.327 Posted: Sat Jun 27 19:48:15 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jun-87 19:43:02 EDT References: <1315@cullvax.UUCP> Organization: School of Computing Science, SFU, Burnaby, B.C. Canada Lines: 26