kind of a dumb question but are neutral wires the same as ground wires? if not what are neutral wires and what are ground wires?

Not a dumb question at all. Back in the 70's, the government agency, known as OSHA, mandated that all electrical wiring require an extra ground. The extra was a safety wire back to the breaker box to ground what ever equipment that was plugged into the outlet. It's just an extra ground wire that is fastened to the appliance case so that if the appliance should short out and make the outer case 'hot', then the voltage will be grounded and you won't get shocked by being the ground source if you happen to touch the appliance standing on a wet surface in bare feet. A lot of things today don't have the extra prong on their cords because they have a dielectric plastic outer casing. But appliances usually come in a metal casing and that's where the extra wire is attached for a sound, safety ground.

NOT the same thing. The function they serve is a little similar but for different purposes.

The ground wire is there specifically to protect you. In the event of a short circuit in a fixture or appliance, it gives the current an easy path to a dump - the ground. In the UK they call it "earthed." It's literally a big copper rod driven into the ground and connected to the electrical panel. Grounded devices have their chassis provided with a ground connection, so when they're plugged in they're wired, in addition to the hot and neutral, also to the ground. If something bad happens like a wire inside the toaster chafes, or you spill something on an electrical device, the circuit that completes is inside the device and the current goes to the earth where it dissipates without hurting anyone. You might get a bit of a shock but the vast majority of the energy goes somewhere else.

The neutral wire also gives the current somewhere to go - AFTER it's already gone through the appliance or fixture. "Voltage" in electricity is also described as "potential." The higher the voltage, the greater the potential. But what IS potential? Without a frame of reference, it doesn't really mean much. That's a bit oversimplified but it'll do - and the neutral provides that frame of reference. A single hot wire with nothing else going into the fixture can't do anything (unless the fixture is very badly miswired but that's a different question).

NOTE: I'm not an electrician by any stretch, I just know a few things and when not to grab certain parts. If Girlie Electrics gives an answer then you should take it as gospel, on her worst day she's better at this than I am on my best.

On an AC circuit, they are not the same wires. A neutral wire always carries current when the load is switched on. A ground wire only carries current when the circuit has a short to reduce the shock. It does NOT carry current all the time.

A neutral wire is used to carry current back to the source (service panel) a ground wire is uninsulated an is designed to have a very low resistance to the current that flows in it allowing breakers to trip very quickly to reduce the time that a malfunctioning electrical device can shock you.

Ground wires are connected directly to the ground rod and do not complete the electrical circuit. They are more of a security or protection service. Neutral is the return line that links from the powered device back to the breaker box. Now the neutral is then also connected to the ground but its primary purpose is to complete the circuit. Do not intermix the two.

No, they are not the same. To put it crudely, on an ac electrical circuit there are two wires, one bringing power to the socket/appliance/whatever it is, and the other returning from it. One is called the live or hot wire, the other is the neutral. The ground, or earth, wire is separate, it is your "safety wire" if you like and is there to direct the power safely to earth rather than through you if there is a fault.

Neutral and ground are similar but not the same, neutral actually grounds at the substation, your ground wire goes to the earth at your home. The ground wire is there as a safety only, in case the neutral or hot wire comes into contact with the metal parts it wasn’t intended to. It’s intended to prevent you from being electrocuted from contacting a possible short.

Sometimes people that do not know what they are doing or electricians that do a poor job may “piggyback” a neutral to the ground in a circuit. It’s very dangerous, a potential shock and fire hazard. Always be sure that it is properly grounded, which can be done by a grounding rod or to a water line. DO NOT ground on a gas line

No

If you were to touch a hot wire to a neutral wire there would be a big spark and the fuse (or breaker) would blow. It's called a short circuit.

Imagine that in your left hand you held the end of a neutral wire and in your right hand you held the end of a ground wire. Now the other end of the neutral and ground wires are connected together in the distance - at the fuse box (aka the breaker box or main service panel). So really they appear to be the same thing - they both run back to the main fuse box and connect to the same point.

Normally, current comes from the fuse box and out the hot wire, then through some load (say, a light bulb) then goes back to the fuse box by way of the neutral wire. And round and round the electricity goes until someone turns off the switch.

Now since the ground wire is like a duplicate of the neutral wire you could disconnect the neutral wire and hook in the ground wire instead and of course everything would work as usual. But even though the two wires are identical, and both function the same, they are not used the same! Each one has a different use resulting in the neutral wire always carrying current and the ground wire never carrying current.

What if the hot wire going inside an appliance, say a washing machine, accidentally touches the metal cabinet? Obviously the outer cabinet will become energized and be a real hazard. We need to have the "juice" turned off fast to make the situation safe. One way to do that would be to connect the neutral wire to the cabinet also. Then if the hot wire accidentally came in contact with the cabinet there would be a big spark and the fuse would blow and shut off the juice rendering the washer safe.

The problem with that though is if you somehow managed to plug the washer in the opposite way, like maybe if you used an extension cord and were able to plug it in the reverse way via the extension cord then the hot wire would be connected to the cabinet instead of the neutral and the cabinet would become electrified! Not good.

So to solve this problem they use another "neutral" wire (the ground wire) to connect to the cabinet. And this ground wire is the third prong on the plug that goes in the half round opening on the outlet. With this arrangement it is almost impossible to plug in the appliance such that the ground wire gets electrified.

So there you have it. Two neutral wires: one used to carry the current back to the fuse box and the other used as a ground wire to connect to the exposed metal of an appliance. BTW, this ground wire is called the Equipment Grounding Conductor (EGC). It should never be use to carry current!

in North America [110v systems], the neutral and ground wires are connected together inside the breaker box at the ground strip, which is itself grounded to earth.

the reason from two separate wires that "do the same thing" is that damage to one does not makes the lights and appliances using the circuit unsafe -- they'll still ground through the other one. [when a rodent, for example, chews through a wire, if its the hot wire, the rodent either stops with the tingle or dies -- the likely worst outcome is the circuit goes off ... but no lights or appliances can be unexpectedly hot to ground].

a GFCI outlet uses the fact of the two "separate" lines to help detect ground faults [amperage in the neutral should be the same as the hot line and zero in the ground ... if either of these is not true, the GFCI "pops" off]

this means that downstream [after] a GFCI in a circuit the neutral and ground lines are NOT the same. Some GFCIs are located in the breaker box, not as an outlet -- detect the same in your house before making changes, m'kay?