Hey there my friend,
Now your thinking good. The green wire is a ground. You really don't have to worry about the green wire, however it does set you up for a potential situation. Please allow me to explain. You see the ground wire will usually protect you from electric shock IF there is a short or say water on a garage floor. You would still get a good zap. What the heck is that stupid green wire good for ?
An intentionally grounded wire that completes a circuit should a neutral wire fail. Typically a green wire. Electrical current takes the shortest, most direct path to ground. In your electrical circuits, the black wire (hot) supplies power and the white wire (neutral) carries the current back. If the neutral wire was somehow broken or interrupted, YOU would be electricity's shortest path back to the earth, so the ground wire is like an insurance policy to carry the current back so you don't get shocked in case the neutral wire fails. The circuit breakers today are desighned to trip open if there is a surge like you just got grounded and are getting zapped. The breaker trips in a couple of milliseconds. This turns off the electrical so you don't remain energized. Hopefully you don't die. Use a different cord if you have too.
Just start where your wall plugins are and see if they are setup for a ground, if they are the old plugs they will have only two holes for the plug.
newer ones have three. If yours have three Great !!! stick with the ground wire and don't take any foolish chances. Your life with using electricity should not be a crap shoot. That kind of gamble is silly and goofy don't do it.
If you still feel any hesitation or out of sorts with this problem then go to your library and ask for a book on electrical wiring to help you better understand it. Look here though as I am sre you can find that info here.
smoke in peace
KingKahuuna
