Strange voltage measurement
I got some strange voltage measurement when I was repairing an electrical outlet and hope someone can explain this to me.
I have a electrical outlet with hot wire connected and neutral wire disconnected. A lamp with a simple rotary switch at the light bulb socket is plugged in to the socket. Breaker is on.
When I switch the lamp to on (it does not actually turn on becase neutral is disconnected) and measure the voltage between the neutral terminal and ground I got 110V. This is what I expected. As there is no current flowing the voltage drop across the bulb is zero and I am just measuring the voltage of the hot wire.
When I switch the lamp to off I expected the voltage between the neutral terminal and ground to be zero, since the neutral side is effectively disconnected from the hot side through the open switch. But instead I measured about 55V from neutral to ground. I try it again with switch - on and unscrewed the bulb and again got the same thing. For some reason there is a 55V drop across open switch or the open bulb socket.
Can anyone tell me what is happening here?