I've always wondered where precisely the voltage on a circuit drops from 120v down to 0v. It's "somewhere" inside of the load (a lightbulb or whatever), but doesn't exactly make sense, because if it's just "It drops to 0 when there's resistance in the circuit", well, there's resistance in the wire the entire time, and it doesn't drop in uniform fashion throughout that circuit. So I figured I'd draw 2 things.
For the theorists: A picture eliminating the typical load to hide behind as an answer.
And the equivalent for the practitioner: A picture of witnessing someone being shocked and trying to know where it's safe to touch them (if at all) to pull them off the line.
Edit: The guy getting shocked shows voltages listed, but no meter / or where the voltage is tested from. But it's implied that if you saw a hot (120v) wire from an outlet, the voltage is the difference between that wire and ground. The idea of the pictures is to help pinpoint the idea that no one is talking about where exactly the point is that the voltage steps down from 120v to 0v.
Best Answer
Think of voltage as electrical pressure.
It doesn't "go" anywhere. It is the difference in potential between point A and point B. You can never measure voltage at a single point, it is always in comparison to another point. So, if you put both leads of your meter on the same electrical point, as you did with the neutral and the ground since they are terminated on the same electrical point, you read zero. Birds sitting on a high voltage wire are only touching the wire at one point and there is no comparison point for a measurable voltage. So they are not hurt.
We create electricity by creating a difference in potential (voltage) between two points and then allowing the difference to flow (current) through a load (resistance) to create work.
As long as you don't get between those two points, you are safe.
Learn more here for free. Go to the education tab for the open source textbook and lectures.
Good luck in you learning and stay safe!