What is the function of a third prong on a plug?

Answer 1

That is a grounding pin. It provides a easy path for electricity to go to ground (all electricity seeks "ground" and will take the easiest path) By having the grounding pin it there it will hopefully prevent the easiest path to ground from being through YOU. Which would cause you you to get shocked.

The third prong connects the body of the appliance directly to ground.

Answer 2

The third prong on a plug is the grounding prong. Its function is to provide a path for electrical currents to safely flow to the ground in the event of a short circuit or electrical fault, helping to prevent electric shock or fire hazards.

Answer 3

It allows consumer devices to have a three-wire cord plugged in for extra protection by the grounded conductor, in addition to the hot/neutral polarization, as compared with a polarized two-prong plug, which has no grounding wire.

Answer 4

The two top prongs carry the main load. They are alternating current so both are positive and negative. The third prong at the bottom is the ground. It carries extra power away from the circuit in case of a power surge.

Answer 5

It connects directly to the house ground so as to protect a person from a shock should a fault occur that connects the hot size of supply to a conductor that a person could come in contact with.

Answer 6

In a 3-pin plug the wires are called live, neutral and earth. The current is carried from the local supply transformer on the live and neutral (the neutral is earthed at the transformer) . The earth wire normally carries no supply current but it has three safety functions.

First, all the external metal surfaces of appliances are connected together via their earth wires, so you won't get a shock by touching two of them at the same time, for example the cooker and the toaster.

Secondly the earth wire is connected to the water and gas mains and to the actual ground outside the house to avoid the buildup of static charge in a lightning storm.

Thirdly if there is a fault inside an appliance such that the live wire touches the case, the earth wire will carry the fault current to blow the fuse or trip the circuit breaker.

Answer 7

The ground wire that is connected to the ground pin of a plug (cap) is a low impedance path for fault current to go directly back to the distribution panel to trip the breaker on the faulted circuit.

Answer 8

To safely ground an electrical appliance. If the hot touches the metal grounded case the circuit breaker will open and stop the current.

Answer 9

The third prong is to make a good ground connection.

Answer 10

This is earth ground. It is to reduce shock hazard from a device that has a metal cover that could become HOT if there were an internal wiring problem that occurred.