Question

What is the main purpose of earthing electrical appliances?
A.To prevent overloading
B.To prevent short circuiting
C.To prevent the person from electric shock
D.None of these

Answer 1

Hint: To find the appropriate option and thus the solution of the given question, we need to dig deep into the concept of Earthing.
Earthing is the process of transferring the immediate discharge of electricity directly to the earth plate, by means of low resistance electrical cables or wires or, in simple words, Earthing is providing a proper connection of exposed metal parts to the electric circuit from ground.

Complete answer:
Earthing of an electrical appliance, specifically, means outer casing of the appliance is connected by means of wire which is then connected to a copper wire which is further connected to Earth. The metallic body is connected to a low resistance conducting path for current such as copper wire as already mentioned, thus, ensuring that any leakage of current to the metallic body of the appliance keeps its potential to that of the earth and the user does not have to suffer any severe electric shock.
This is used as a safety measure especially for appliances that have metallic bodies for example electric iron, toaster etc.
Therefore, it could be concluded that the main purpose of Earthing is to prevent the user of the electric appliance from getting severe electric shock

Hence, the correct option would be (C) To prevent the person from electric shock.

Note:
One is advised to remember that though Earthing is often referred as grounding as well, but still there is a key difference between the two and which is that the term ‘Earthing’ means that the circuit is physically connected to the ground which is Zero Volt potential to the ground whereas in ‘grounding’ the circuit might not be physically connected to ground but its potential is still zero with respect to other points.