What is Ground? Earth Ground/Earthing

What is ground and what does it mean to do Earthing? Here I answer what ground is, how it relates to your wall socket and the wiring in your appliances, how to get grounds for your high voltage and other experiments, and about the ground symbol in electrical schematics.

This video was made possible in part by these Patreon supporters:
Printable Science
Jonathan Rieke
James Padden

See also:

Does Volts or Amps Kill You? Voltage, Current and Resistance

Portable Crystal Radio using Loop Antenna and Pizza Box

How to Read a Schematic

The previous version of this video had an error in it that was too big to fix with an annotation, and so it was removed, fixed, enhanced and reuploaded. The error was a silly one on my part where I had the fault go to ground, silly because I should have realized that wasn't what happens since I knew about the ground being connected to the neutral bar in the breaker panel. A big thanks to all who brought it up in the comments to the previous version.

Follow behind-the-scenes on:

[KevinCoop]

Rim star, This is absolutely the best grounding video on YouTube! I'm recently retired Electrical Engineer and have taught electrical design for many years. It took me several years at first to finally figure out how grounding actually works! Your explanation is exactly correct. I'm pretty sure than 99% of electricians, designers, and electrical engineers do not understand what you just taught. After reading the comments, for those who think he is incorrect, think it through! If you accept this information, designing or installing electrical system grounding makes sense. Most people are taught what to do, not why to do it. Again, awesome job! Very Respectfully, Kevin

[binaryglitch]

This is one of the best ground explanations I've seen.

I'm a journeyman electrician.

*Yes the subject of grounding does get a lot deeper, and more technical, but this is sufficient for any non-electrician or first year apprentice. It's simple, easy to understand and follow, and it tells you everything you need to know to understand it on a basic level. Great vid, I'll send it to apprentices.

[willapino]

Plumber here, please never connect your ground to a pipe unless its a completely dead and redundant line you wont need to work on. Grounded pipes make working on your plumbing system very dangerous if you have any electrical faults as the pipe become charged with electricity and this is the reason more plumbers die of electrocution every year than electricians. Love the video and find your way of explaining things very simple and informative but please don't tell people to connect ground to pipes it can be very dangerous.

[Saadkhan-thbz]

I just wanna say, your use of animation to clearly explain concepts is nothing short of stellar. Great video man. Cheers!

[phtowel]

"To understand this hole, we first have to understand the other two holes." Ah, the secret to life...

[vegashawkfan]

I've studied electricity and electronics for more than twenty years. This is the best explanation of ground I have ever seen. I'm finding that that's a common occurrence on this channel. Fantastic video.

[dLimboStick]

Excellent video. You can always tell when an instructor deeply understands their subject, because they can explain it in simple terms to a lay person. You've done that here. Well done! Thanks!

[SarkTheShark]

This 9 minute video was more helpful then my 4 years of university

[ripno]

Other people might understand other videos on this topic, but this is the one that I understood best.

[aeringtonarises]

Holy crap, I recognized your voice, and it randomly hit me that I have watched your channel before, like 3 years ago, when I built a crystal radio. Now I'm back, working as a technicians apprentice, trying to get a full understanding of electricity.

[NPRBEST]

This is the best video on YouTube covering the "ground " topic. Animations are absolutely amazing.

[valuedhumanoid]

I have a friend who built his own recording studio. When it was all finished, he was getting some really bad noise from the house. If you tuned on a blender you could hear it on his recordings or occasionally you could pick up radio stations. So we called in an electrician and he isolated the ground for the studio only, so it was by itself. The problem went away. He drove a copper rod 10 feet into the ground and used it for the ground. Quiet as a mouse now.

[abar]

This is one of the best if not THE best explanations, I have ever heard, watched or read . Thank you for sharing and your time.

[djsaekrakem]

dude thank you for making this video... most explanations suck, SERIOUSLY! YOU HELPED SO MANY PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THIS. people over complicate this so much.

[dadsi_mamsi]

College would be better if videos like these were around years back. Very educational!

[akbarrahmatullah]

Very good explanation of the ground wire. This video Should be part of the standard learning package on Electrical Engineering.

[Mohammed-bdql]

Damn boi this is the most straightforward and foolproof explanation of ground I've ever seen! I wish I found your channel back when I was a freshman. Thanks buddy.

[uematscrates]

Best explanation ive seen. Nice visuals, examples, animations, and articulate explanations. Ill be seeking you out for my electric questions from now on. Thank you

[QuaabQueb]

Another fun fact...the ground prong is always the longest, so that it is always the first and last to enter the plug, ensuring a constant connection

[jameshughesdon]

Such a good video. I've been using it for years to show students. They spend years in collage and don't understand. a single 10 min video connects everything Thank you 😊