Ground (electricity)

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A typical earthing electrode (left of gray pipe), consisting of a conductive rod driven into the ground, at a
home in Australia.
Most electrical codes specify that the insulation on protective earthing conductors must be a distinctive
color (or color combination) not used for any other purpose.

In electrical engineering, ground or earth is the reference point in an electrical circuit from which
voltages are measured, a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection
to the Earth.
Electrical circuits may be connected to ground (earth) for several reasons. In mains powered
equipment, exposed metal parts are connected to ground to prevent user contact with dangerous
voltage if electrical insulation fails. Connections to ground limit the build-up of static
electricity when handling flammable products or electrostatic-sensitive devices. In
some telegraph and power transmissioncircuits, the earth itself can be used as one conductor of
the circuit, saving the cost of installing a separate return conductor (seesingle-wire earth return).
For measurement purposes, the Earth serves as a (reasonably) constant potential reference
against which other potentials can be measured. An electrical ground system should have an
appropriate current-carrying capability to serve as an adequate zero-voltage reference level.
In electronic circuit theory, a "ground" is usually idealized as an infinite source or sink for charge,
which can absorb an unlimited amount of current without changing its potential. Where a real
ground connection has a significant resistance, the approximation of zero potential is no longer
valid. Stray voltages or earth potential rise effects will occur, which may create noise in signals or
if large enough will produce an electric shock hazard.
The use of the term ground (or earth) is so common in electrical and electronics applications that
circuits in portable electronic devices such as cell phones and media players as well as circuits
in vehicles may be spoken of as having a "ground" connection without any actual connection to
the Earth, despite "common" being a more appropriate term for such a connection. This is
usually a large conductor attached to one side of the power supply (such as the "ground plane"
on a printed circuit board) which serves as the common return path for current from many
different components in the circuit.
Signal Ground
Power supplies, circuit boards and signal pathways in most electronic equipment are also connected t
o the same earth ground as the chassisfor reference voltage and safety. There are exceptions; for exa
mple, medical equipment that is attached to a patient is generally isolated fromearth ground even whe
n plugged in, because the time between a short circuit and the breaker tripping could prove fatal. Ethe
rnet adaptersand other networking equipment are also isolated from earth ground in order to prevent
unbalanced ground loops from causing interference(see ground loop)

Electrical voltage can only be measured between two conductors or poles. Often earth
potential is (implicitly) used as the second pole when measuring voltages occurring in
lightening, or electromagnetic waves. Also, electric shock and even electrocution can
occur if an electric circuit is completed through a human body to earth ground.
Therefore, electric power systems typically include an Earth Ground where a
conductive pole is driven several feet deep into the earth. Often a green wire is used to
connect this earth ground to the electrical boxes and electrical enclosures in a residential
electrical wiring plan.
An earth ground can also be used as the sink for a lightening protection system and as
the other pole in a monopole antenna system. See: Earthing systemand Ground
(electricity)
Electrical devices were often built on metal chassis to provide a mechanical structure to
support the components. This metal chassis was often used as the ground plane for
distributing power throughout the system. One pole of the power system is connected to
this chassis ground and components can easily be connected to this ground plane. One
example of this is the body of an automobile which is connected to the negative terminal
of the battery. Modern circuits are often built on multilayer printed circuit boards. Often
one or more conducting layers of these multilayer boards are chosen as the chassis
ground.
Sensitive electrical equipment must be able to accurately detect very small voltage
differences to operate properly. Examples include sensitive radio receivers, or
biomedical equipment such as an EEG or EKG. These signal voltages are many
magnitudes smaller than the power voltages used in the system. To improve sensitivity
the signal ground is isolated from the chassis or power ground. This helps to isolate faint
signals from noise on the power circuit.
These can be thought of a three increasingly accurate estimates of zero voltage
references. Earth ground for a power system, chassis ground for a device, and signal
ground for the very low voltage signals within a device. .