Understanding grounding scenarios

cmartinez said:

My question then is, who's the final authority that defines and approves said symbols?

Click to expand...

Well in this case, is there anyone that is going to come and haul you off for drawing your schematic a certain way?
.NO.
But society in many walks off life and endeavors have agreed through professional bodies and jurisdictions to to establish certain rules and guidelines in order
for everyone to have a universal understanding of what your intentions are especially in situations where miss-interpretation can lead to dire consequences.
For example the Electrical and Industrial Electronic industry I was trained in it was paramount to establish certain guide lines which were typically enforced by by local regulators.
Most professional bodies hold their members responsible for their work and actions
If you are going to set certain standard such as symbols etc and attempt to make these universal, then ignoring them is rather futile. Why even bother?
To harp on it may seem trivial to most, but if you are going to attempt to come up with a standards and publish them Internationally and on the Web ,and then ignore them, especially where safety can be come an issue and everyone flaunts or disregards it then what is the point?
One of the biggest offenders is the book the 'Art Of Electronics' which (miss)use the Earth Ground symbol all the way through the book.
As to who is the final authority, there have been many regulating bodies over the years that have attempted to standardize symbols etc, starting early 20th century with the JIC et-al, in N.A. there is NFPA79, NEC, CEC etc as well as the IEC equivalents.
Dr Bruce Archambeault put it succinctly in his cartoon .
His lectures on the subject are quite enlightening.
Rant over (for now).
Max.
.

.