Can a load center have a breaker as large as its main?

[jwelectric]

Yes, and exactly that is what had once happened to me. I was working in a place where the boss had a metal box on the end of a piece of rubber cord, a big no-no, ……… plug needed to be put in the other way (back then in the day of same-sized blades), ………. but the boss at least saw something was wrong and pulled the cord from the wall socket.

reversed polarity and grounding is two different things and using a metal box with a rubber cord is an acceptable wiring method.

Still in relation to the matter of a receptacle's ground, there is yet another purpose beyond lightening and what you have mentioned, at least in one case known to me:

Unless you have come across something that all those great minds that writes the NEC and those text books used in our schools today then there is no other reason for the ground rods which has already been pointed out to you in this thread.

I once had a computer that would not work correctly unless it was connected to a grounded receptacle, and that used to be a big problem for me in any room that did not have grounded outlets. Using a 3-to-2 adapter could get the device plugged in and powered up, but it still needed a ground in place to actually work.

If it would come on just what did the grounding conductor do that made it work? I don’t understand how it could come on but not work and by some miracle the equipment grounding conductor made the system work. The equipment grounding conductor does not conduct electricity unless there is a ground fault. Ever wonder why the equipment grounding conductor is bare and not insulated?

So, and while I would no longer do this today, there have been times in the past where I have temporarily added a jumper wire from an outlet's neutral screw to its ground screw in order to make it possible for that particular machine to work.

All you did was make the equipment grounding terminal and anything connected to it at the same potential as the circuit itself. It neither made anything connected to it work nor did it make anything safe. Quite the contrary what you did was very dangerous and could have caused someone to have been hurt very badly. If this was an acceptable wiring method why are the two not connected together instead of requiring two completely different conductors?