On Sun, 09 May 2004 04:13:55 GMT, zeno wrote:

My question:
If I were to take a volt (amp) meter and put one probe in the
hot side of an AC house outlet and the other probe to a metal
rod stuck in the ground out in the middle of a field
somewhere (presumably nowhere near a neutral leg), what would
my meter read and why?
Deep electro-philosophical answers welcome as long as it is
expressed in terms a child could understand. (It seems that
this little odd transmitter circuit avoided the neutral leg
altogether-- just used the hot side and a ground).



Bill K6TAJ

Bill,

Assuming that the transformer on the pole supplying the power to your
house has a grounded neutral, an "infinitely" high impedance voltmeter
will read total applied voltage across an open circuit, and so your
meter will read 110/120 volts.

If your voltmeter does not have an infinitely high impedance, the
internal impedance of the meter will be in series with the line/meter
lead/ground impedance and will read a portion of the applied voltage
equal to the voltage drop across it's internal impedance.

Ron, W1WBV