Does AC require return path, wont ground be enough for potential difference

AC switches direction 50 or 60 times a second. Cant a single wire ( Phase/ Hot/ Load wire ) just push and pull the electrons. If neutral carries electricity ( forward or return ), why touching it doesn't produce electric shock?

In the source of AC current at home (50 Hz or 60 Hz) we have three terminals:
- phase- neutre- ground
The source of current is the "phase" and it go to "neutre". The danger connection is "phase" therminal, infact, if you use a "phase finder", the lamp switch on with the "phase" connection.The neutre is the return of the current.The ground could be unnecessary, but if a device is damaged and you touch the container of you device, the current from "phase" could charge on your body.Giovanni

Hi Ashvin,
The title of your question and the question itself are two separate questions.Regarding the title - yes AC does require a return path and as Giovanni mentioned, the return path in your house is the neutral. And as he also mentioned the earth wire is there to protect you should the live/phase/hot wire come into contact with exposed metal parts etc.In remote areas of certain countries, high voltage transmission is provided out to those remote areas via a system called SWER. Single wire earth return. It saves running a neutral conductor and therefore money but can have issues due to ground resistances. 
Regarding the question.  An energised conductor with a voltage, an AC voltage, will have electrons changing direction at whatever your countries frequency is, even if it has no return path. You need a second conductor, a neutral or earth conductor, to complete the circuit to allow current to flow. Current will not "flow" without a circuit but a conductor sitting in air not touching anything can have a voltage present. You will only get an electric shock if you hold an energised conductor, say in one hand and complete the circuit with the other hand by touching earthed mettalic parts or the neutral conductor for example. You could hold two energised conductors, one in each hand and not get a shock, as long as both conductors are supplied from the same source, same voltage etc( do not try this, take my word for it). And if you try to measure the voltage between them it will read zero, regardless of what voltage is present. If however you measure the voltage between one of the energised conductors and an earth conductor you will measure a voltage.Also the earth conductor and neutral conductor very often come from the same point, if you trace it back far enough, which is why you can hold the neutral and not get a shock, it is effectively the same as holding an earth conductor.

I should also point out that a lot of information out there is country specific so it would depend where you are in the world.

Thanks Giovanni Di Maria and Alan GallagherIf there is a concept of return path, does touching the neutral wire of a completed AC circuit produce shock? BTW, I'm from India and we use 240 v, 50 Hz AC with neutral being supplied from the grid. Any link with specific grid details is appreciated.
Thanks in advance!!

Hi Ashvin,If you were to touch the neutral wire of a completed circuit, yes you would get a shock of some kind. It would depend on a few variables. You would effectively be creating a parallel path for the current to flow and so some of the current from the completed circuit would flow through you to earth and some would flow through the neutral. The amount that would flow through you would depend on how well connected to ground you were, if you were insulated from ground by wearing rubber soled shoes you may not get a shock at all ( please dont try to prove his). But if you were barefoot and standing in water then you would most likely get a nasty shock. I am not familiar with India's electrical regulations so I cannot comment on your grid or have any links to it I'm afraid.
RegardsAlan

Thanks!

Why do electric grids run a neutral line? Can't they use SWER? Doesn't an extra conductor just increase infrastructure and maintenance cost?

In New Zealand, all switch board neutrals are tied to a neutral bus which is then tied to the neutral return on the power pole.All ground wires go a separate bus, which is both linked to neutral and to a stake in the ground. All internal copper water pipe is also bonded to the ground bus bar. I encountered a situation where the neutral on the power pole went high resistance at a bad join, additionally, at some point who knows when, the earth wire on the ground stake had lifted. It meant all of the taps in the house were elevated well above ground. I live in an area where there is a 10,000 square Km  shingle bed many hundreds of metres deep beneath us, it is nearly impossible to get a good low impedance earth in  many areas to meet the standards in our electrical code.Cheers,Richard

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