Is that why they call they call the grounded conductor the neutral? Please break down responses as though you were addressing a novice as I need that.
Simplest explanation I can come up with:
Consider the typical single-phase 120-0-120 service
At any given time, the two 'line' ( the 120's in 120-0-120) voltages will be of equal voltages but opposite polarities.
So the center ( '0' ) point ( 'neutral') will be at the mid-point of the voltages, which, being equal but opposite, will be 0 volts.
Analogy: Think of a vehicle's gear shift.....Reverse-Neutral-Foward ('Drive') equal but opposite with Neutral at the '0' point.
Hope this helps
I guess you could make the gear shift analogy, but remember that neutral is still part of the power transmission for electricity. The neutral gear setting in a vehicle means that you've disconnected the engine from the wheels, so that the two shafts spin independently, and therefore cannot transmit power.
An analogy I would use, is to think of sea level as the grounded conductor/neutral. And think of a pump that raises water to a reservoir above sea level, and another pump that raises water from a reservoir below sea level back to the sea. The two reservoirs are your ungrounded sources/sinks of water. The neutral sea level is your grounded soruce/sink of water. Pumps bring water up, water passes through a turbine load on its way down, and back to the lower sea or reservoir. You can either connect a turbine load between the upper reservoir and the sea (analogous to a single phase 120V load on Line 1), between the sea and the lower reservoir (analogous to a single phase load on Line 2), or between the upper and lower reservoir (analogous to a 240V load across the two lines).
In this analogy, the neutral grounded conductor would be a pipe at sea level. It still carries the water from/to the load, but there is no elevation of it above sea level, and negligible pressure difference across its length. The pipes either above or below sea level are your ungrounded conductors, and the reservoirs/pumps are your source.
Voltage would be analogous to elevation. Current would be analogous to the flow rate of water. The combination of the two, form the power transmitted from pump source to turbine load.