One thing that surprised me was when some time ago I acquired a copy of the much quoted reference, "Art Of Electronics" , and found that all the example circuits throughout the book showed Earth GND as power reference. Also I found no description listed for any symbols whatsoever?

PS: This thread could have also qualified for 'General Electronics Chat' section.

 

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Portable Ground.

I am now imagening the unspeakable cruelty of a parent that literally grounds his kid after a tantrum ...

 

In the other thread I postulated the notion of using a different symbol for what people call ground.

We already have symbols for this -- and every other thing that might be meant by "ground". We have a symbol that (is supposed to) means "earth ground", and a different one that means "chassis ground", and a different one that just means a common node (this one is usually just a small triangle). Not having a symbol for a common reference node is not the problem and introducing yet another symbol that most people will not use will not solve the problem. The problem is conceptual and it exists primarily because, for the overwhelming majority of people in the overwhelming majority if cases, the difference between the different meanings of "ground" is immaterial and the use of a generic, ambiguous term is more than adequate to communicate their meaning. As long as that's the case, things aren't going to change.

 

Due to the wide miss use of the Earth GND symbol, The method I use in order to avoid any confusion is to show power common referenced to Earth GND where applicable.
There are very few instances now where true earth GND is required to carry current in the normal operation of the circuit.

My method. (p.s. Kicad identifies these two symbols as GND and Earth

 

If you were to measure the potential difference between the earth/grounding point in one building to another, there would very likely be some small voltage difference – this is the primary reason that Ethernet connections between equipment use galvanic isolation. If the earth/ground potential difference were to exceed a volt or so, without galvanic isolation the received signal may not fall below the logic low voltage.