In Reply to: There has been much said here about the safety of grounding, but little about bonding. posted by Norm on April 16, 2007 at 14:25:45:
Much confusion arises from the wide-spread misuse of the word, "ground," for the safety conductor system. That this system has to be bonded throughout is a simple reflection of the need for low connection resistance. "Bonding" means the equipment, conductors, and neutral supply wire all must be connected such that they can conduct a fault current without allowing a dangerous voltage to appear on the faulty equipment in the time it takes the circuit breaker to operate.This contradicts the rationalization for using 'cheater' plugs that says the ungrounded (unbonded) equipment can be grounded (bonded) through the interconnect cable audio ground conductor to a grounded (bonded) piece of equipment. Very few interconnect cables have adequate ground conductors to perform this function, and the detachable connectors would not be considered a form of 'bonding.'
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Follow Ups
- See item 10. 'The concept of "separate ground" is nonsense.' - Al Sekela 16:29:28 04/16/07 (4)
- I think was most striking is that the normal house ground gives no zero reference. nt - Norm 16:42:39 04/16/07 (3)
- Clarification: it gives a false reference when used for such. - Al Sekela 16:12:27 04/17/07 (1)
- Yep. nt - Norm 19:53:03 04/17/07 (0)
- There are no such thing as absolute potentials - clifff 10:10:13 04/17/07 (0)