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RE: The Origin of Positive Earth?

To: "'Michael Marr'" <mmarr@idcnet.com>, <Chip19474@aol.com>, <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: The Origin of Positive Earth?
From: jaltman@altlaw.com
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 15:11:41 -0400charset="iso-8859-1"
Importance: Normal
Off hand I'd say no.  A complete circuit is a complete circuit and
resistance anywhere in the circuit is a resistance. A voltage drop in the
return path is still a voltage drop, i.e. voltage is measured with respect
to ground and in this example "ground" is not at ground due to the
resistance.  The only point truly at ground in the example would be the
point at which ground cable connects to the battery.




Jim Altman  jaltman@altlaw.com Illigitimi non Carborundum
http://www.altlaw.com/metro/jaltman.html    69-TR6#CC28754L  W4UCK

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-triumphs@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-triumphs@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Michael Marr
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 1999 1:46 PM
To: Chip19474@aol.com; triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: The Origin of Positive Earth?



Good question!  Maybe it is to maintain 12 Volts supply to all accessories,
because the frame and body, being relatively massive, has relatively low
resistance when compared with a cable.  Thus, the voltage drop would be in
the ground cable rather than in the supply cable.  Does this make sense to
anybody?  Dan Masters?
-----Original Message-----
From: Chip19474@aol.com <Chip19474@aol.com>
To: triumphs@autox.team.net <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Date: Tuesday, July 13, 1999 11:26 AM
Subject: The Origin of Positive Earth?


>
>Humble Listees:
>
>Yet another early morning automotive conversation before work with my
>comrades and another unresolved question.....this morning's dilemma is:
>
>Why was positive earth (ground) "used first" - later changed to negative
>grounding?
>
>My colleagues seem to think it had something to do with the fact that the
>earth is positively charged with respect to naturally balanced negatively
>charged clouds so why not comply with nature and make our cars normally
>positively charged.  I figured that the decision had something to do with
>electron flow versus current flow for spark plugs.....it's better (that's
as
>scientific as I can be) to have a spark originating from the centre
electrode
>of a sparkplug to control the explosion blast which it would if you
believed
>that a spark starts from the negative side of 2 electrodes.  'Course, that
>argument doesn't hold up with today's neg grounding systems.
>
>So, maybe positive earth got it's start purely from coincidence.....the
>positive battery post of the first production car just happened to be close
>to the frame so the assembly crew connected it home!!
>
>Chip Krout
>'76 TR6 CF57822U (Being Reborn For Y2K)
>'70 Spit MkIII  FDU78512L (Decent Driver)


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