[tomatotomato37]

There's one thing I don't understand between hot and neutral. How do the electric turbines upstream at the power plant only act on what becomes the hot wire? By my understanding of how motors work the magnet causes a positive current on the whole coiling/wire, meaning a positive current on one side is matched by an equally powerful negative current on the other. As both wires on the consumer end eventually join to the ends of that coiling, than wouldn't that mean both wires switch between hot and neutral everytime the current changes direction? Also, as all household wiring is in parallel off the mains, wouldn't that mean a closed circuit on one branch would turn the neutral wire on another branch hot as they effectively become one wire? How does the electric "push/pull" get separated onto only the hot line?

[taneq]

> than wouldn't that mean both wires switch between hot and neutral everytime the current changes direction?

The neutral line is connected to Earth at some point. The voltage difference is created by a transformer upstream which just pushes a 240V (or whatever) difference between live and neutral, and since neutral is tied to Earth, it stays at ~0V while the live line stays at ~240VAC.

You're right, though, that any current pulled from the live line goes back through the neutral line and they both end up with alternating current going through them. The voltage only alternates between live (or 'hot') and neutral relative to each other. This voltage difference between the two lines is generated by a transformer and there doesn't have to be any connection between live/neutral and anything else (at which point you can just think of them as live-1 and live-2) but the neutral line is connected to Earth at some point (although depending on load and the distance to the earthing point your neutral will actually have some AC ripple on it).

[madengr]

Yes, just as you describe, but the addition of a transformer allows you to reference the neutral to ground, therefore the hot swings above and below ground. It’s a little more complicated than what I described, as your breaker box is 240V split phase, but the transformer outside your house allows for a ground reference at its center tap.

If you have ever made the mistake of connecting a diode rectifier directly to AC mains, then grounding the negative output, you’ll blow a breaker. A 1:1 isolation transformer is still needed.

[ThrustVectoring]

The electric generators aren't connected to your neutral wire. They deliver three phase power with three different "hot" lines, and then only one of those phases gets pulled down into your house electricity.