ground

Brownout

Joined Jan 10, 2012
2,390
Originally Posted by Brownout
I get the feeling the OP is doing his best, and the grammer police should chill the feak out. There is a discussion in the off topic forum about how we are here to help even those who has trouble with english. If that's the policy, it's good enough for me.

Perhaps you should re-read posts #13 and #14. It is clear that he is not trying to put actual words together. If he would just take the time to write out full, legible sentences, I can deal with any language barrier beyond that. Our point is that the OP wasn't even trying to type full words. That is what is annoying me.
Then stop reading.
 
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Brownout

Joined Jan 10, 2012
2,390
To get back on topic, the ground can be thought of as the point into which all current flows. At least that's how it works in DC circuits. in AC, ground usually referes to the lowest voltage in the system, a reference against which to measure all other voltages.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Answering questions here always includes trying to address the questioner on a level he/she will be able to understand (and sometimes I fail). Txt speak looks so illiterate that deciding how to answer becomes rather difficult. When I try to form a sentence in txt spk, I am the one who appears to be illiterate!
 

BillB3857

Joined Feb 28, 2009
2,570
Ground does not always mean "earth". In electrical and electronic circuits, it would be better to call it "COMMON" meaning it is shared with all of the individual elements that need a reference point.

Other than theTxt speak, your English is much better that most of us could even attempt in your native language. Just avoid the Txt speak and we will all be much better off.
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Ground does not always mean "earth". In electrical and electronic circuits, it would be better to call it "COMMON" meaning it is shared with all of the individual elements that need a reference point.

Other than the Txt speak, your English is much better that most of us could even attempt in your native language. Just avoid the Txt speak and we will all be much better off.
Absolutely correct. That last post showed that you (aimaldaudkhan) can at least put full words together and make coherent posts. That is all that I was asking for :)

ok sir next time i will care about it. my english is weak
can u explain it why we use ground in circuits
and it is nesessry in circuits?
Ground is a reference point that is absolutely critical in every circuit. It creates a path for the current to flow, and it ensures that the voltage at different points is correct.

Let's think about a water main in a city. You have a very large pipe underground, and several smaller pipes branch off of it to go to individual houses. Then, after the water goes through the houses and is "used" (goes down the drain), it goes back to a second large pipe underground that returns it. The first pipe would be like the + bus in a circuit (a heavy wire connected to the + side of the battery, to which all '+'s in the circuit connect. This is like the pipes going to the individual houses. The second large pipe that returns the water (or dumps it) is like the - bus, which is the GROUND. It is often connected to the '-' side of the battery. Without the ground in the circuit, the water couldn't flow to the houses, because it would just be stopped there. If there's no way to return it, it can't flow. The same goes for electrical circuits. You must have a full circuit in order for current to flow. Ground is the return path, and completes the circuit.

Does this help?
Best wishes,
Matt
 

gootee

Joined Apr 24, 2007
447
"Ground" is an unfortunate and misleading term. "Common" is not much better. One problem with those terms is that they make beginners think that the voltage is the same, everywhere that is called Ground, or Common. In almost every non-trivial circuit, that is not true, and if assumed to be true it can have devastating (or at least degrading) effects, in many circuits.

Those terms (and schematic drawings that use symbols for them) are also often very misleading when they imply that the ground or common symbols may be connected together in any chosen manner, without any effect on circuit perfomance.

Even at relatively-low frequencies (e.g. audio), Ground is almost never truly "zero volts", or even the same voltage, in more than one place that is called Ground. And how ground conductors are routed, and which "ground" points can safely share conductors, is usually extremely important to consider.

Unless a full ground plane is used and the circuit is on a PCB, the use of Ground symbols usually also obscures the need to keep the ground conductor, and whatever signal or power conductor it forms a loop with, CLOSE TOGETHER, always (unless we're making antennas).

I think that the use of Ground or Common symbols on schematics is one of the worst practices that still survives. Each ground connection should be drawn exactly as it needs to be connected. Show (or indicate) the actual connection point!

Face it, schematics that are made public WILL be built by people who are not experienced electronic designers or technicians. It is almost criminally negligent to provide a schematic that implies that it's OK to daisy-chain all of the ground symbols, for a circuit where that would significantly degrade the peformance.

Anyone who doesn't understand how that could happen probably shouldn't be providing schematics to anyone else. And anyone who does understand should be able to draw the schematic without ground symbols (except maybe one) and show the actual connections.
 
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gootee

Joined Apr 24, 2007
447
One of the main practical things to remember is that the ground conductors have impedances, as all conductors do. The distributed parasitic impedances of conductors often have quite-significant effects, in circuits.
 
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