DIY CNC Milling Machine From Scratch

[Davek0974]

Dictionary wise both are same.

But in electrical engineering context both words differ in scope. Ground is a general term that refers to a reference potential against which all voltages are measured. Earth is same as ground but used in context of power systems because the ground here is implemented by burying copper conductors deep down into Earth.

Since Earth has minerals, moisture and it has practically infinite volume, the current flow is only limited by contact resistance between ground/earth conductor and soil. Because of this, on the distribution side, the neutral is connected to earth. On receiving side, fault current from one of the phases can flow into the local earth conductor and make its way to the neutral at distribution side. Apart from being a sink for fault current, the Earth conductor also serves as a return path for instrumentation systems.

:)

[njhussey]

Dictionary wise both are same.

But in electrical engineering context both words differ in scope. Ground is a general term that refers to a reference potential against which all voltages are measured. Earth is same as ground but used in context of power systems because the ground here is implemented by burying copper conductors deep down into Earth.

Since Earth has minerals, moisture and it has practically infinite volume, the current flow is only limited by contact resistance between ground/earth conductor and soil. Because of this, on the distribution side, the neutral is connected to earth. On receiving side, fault current from one of the phases can flow into the local earth conductor and make its way to the neutral at distribution side. Apart from being a sink for fault current, the Earth conductor also serves as a return path for instrumentation systems.

:)

Look who swallowed a dictionary.....nice clarification, cheers Dave 😊

[Clive S]

Yes Dave good clarification one of the problems that has been highlighted is that different disciplines treat the words different such as in electronics PC boards often have a ground plane that is not connected to earth but to DC ground or signal ground in this case ground is not earth.

[Davek0974]

Yep, it's a thorny subject, don't forget the chassis ground, signal ground, RF ground - there are loads of grounds but they do not have to be connected to earth :)