I think I’ve found a potential design flaw in an extension cord. It allows you to plug in the hot blade, while leaving the neutral blade out and exposed. Obviously you shouldn’t try and use the cord like this, but is this actually safe, as in you won’t get a shock from touching the exposed pins?
It seems like I could complete a circuit to ground by touching the exposed neutral blade, which obviously I don't think would be great for my health.
I'm in Canada, the outlet it's plugged into is wired correctly, and there's no GFCI on the circuit.
Best Answer
No. In this condition, the exposed plug blade will be deadly.
Every load connects hot to neutral. It does so through some level of impedance, but that impedance is not enough to protect you from shock.
If you have a GFCI/RCD device somewhere protecting this load, that will intervene to prevent injury in this case.
One detail: Current wants to return to source, not ground. For man-made mains current, source is the supply transformer, and hot power is seeking neutral. It will be happy with ground, because back in the main service panel there is a neutral-ground equipotential bond connecting them, so it will go via ground to get back to neutral.