Scott35-
I really appreciate the time it took you to explain that.
The L-L, L-L-L, L-N is clear now and I feel as though I could explain it to my Mom.
(one of my old professors used that as a way to figure out if you really understood something. Maybe he was sexist.)
Now for my final gaps in grasping the 'grounded conductor'.
Another shortcoming of the electrical books I've seen is that they all start to get a little gray once you get out to the utility transformer. You said that they aren't connected to ground. I know that the groundING conductor is unrelated to transformer operation. But, for the groundED conductor to get it's name. That I'm going to read up on to fully understand. I'm overthinking it.
So there's the sawzall/ping-pong balls alternating direction with RMS, Peak to peak and all that good stuff.
The blade/balls are moving along the conductor, alternating + -, back and forth. Now, using Bob's pingpong analogy, at 90deg (+) there is a ball popping out on the 'other' side, moving away from the transformer.
Here's the question-
Does that ball go all the way through the hot, and continue through grounded cond. and pop out on the transformer side in a loop?
OR
At 270deg (-) is it popping back out back on the conductor it originated on? If so, what is happening on the grounded cond? I'm trying to apply the answer of this question to Kirchoff's 2nd law about opposite loads cancelling in the neutral. Something strange is happening to the ping pong balls there. It may be too early to introduce this into the equation.
I will start browsing the Theory archives today before coming back with additional questions.
Thanks again, I am very grateful.
