[COLOR="DarkRed"]is this possible ?[/COLOR]
Yes

[COLOR="DarkRed"]i assume thats why my dryer does not get hot. does this mean i have a bad breaker possibly ?[/COLOR]
Yes the heater will not work on 120 as it is not connected to Neutral so you do not have a circuit path.
I doubt it is the breaker but anything is possible.
The breaker is actually 2 breakers and it cuts the hot sides of the line off, so if one was blown then you would only see voltage on one side of the line (120 volts) the other side would be 0 volts.

Do not know if you know how you get 240 but will explain as it might make trouble shooting easier.
The 240 is actually two 120 volt supplies with a common Neutral that are 180 degrees out of phase. Basically when one hot side of the line is positive 120, the other side is negative 120 so if you measure between the two sides you get 240 volts.

When you measure it at the plug was the unit still plugged in?
Sometimes one side of the line will feed back the 120 so you see it on both sides. It has to be measured with the appliance unplugged.

Has the unit ever worked on this plug?
It sounds like the plug is mis-wired either at the plug itself or the electrical box.

yes you guys are right. i found inside the breaker box that both hot wires were not coming from the same 2 pole breaker. i switched one with the one right above it and now the dryer works. the one i switched it with was a single pole breaker so i suppose the brilliant apt maint. man switched them when the breakers were changed for some reason. thanks for the replies