I am curious how the earth work as an omnipresent conductive surface in an electrical distribution system?
2 answers
How it works? see my previous post. In electrical distribution systems, it provides a reference potential (zero). One has to have a reference potenial to measure the actual line potentials. IF ground was "floating", and not reference zero, and you distributed electrical power, what you thought was 24 volts, now is 24+ground. That could be a total of 11,207 volts, and present a significant shock hazard. So having ground as a reference zero, to which all other potentials are measured, ensures significant safety on electrical distribution lines. The reality often is that ground is not zero, but near zero. So if you measure distribution voltages to ground, it may be a few volts above what you generated. Here in my area of Texas, when it is dry, I often have "ground" potential up to 6 volts above reference zero, due to dry Earth. So we often use water pipes as "ground", but nowadays as we have plastic pipes, that option goes away. On my house, I have an 11 feet ground rod inserted, but even in dry times, it is not zero.
Oh great! Now I know. Thank you for answering my question.