A simple question...

Seems kind of sad, but how or what do you do to "ground" something? been puzzling me for weeks.

thx in advance...ivan

as far as i'm concerned, it means connecting it to the negative terminal of the battery

however, generally it means providing the current a direct path to the ground, hence the name "grounding". in car electronics, this is accomplished by connecting the thing you want to ground to the frame of the car.

any better explanations?

A "ground" in a circuit, can be a reference point from which measurements are taken. It is also a return path for current, after it passes through a load.

In mains applications, 'ground' (as daviddoria said) is something that is electrically bonded to the Earth (the soil you stand on). Eg, water pipes, earth stakes + associated wiring. Depending on what area you live in, and the local regulations, the neutral may be connected to the earth (this is called the MEN system, or Multiple Earthed Neutral)

daviddoria... Although in modern cars, the negative is connected to the chassis, many years ago, it used to be the other way - the positive was connected to the chassis. This is 'positive grounding'.

Ground or Earth ?

So it seeme to depend on where you are (language problems again) and the application :?

In the UK a mains earth would be connected to 'soil' but a circuit's ground may not be at earth potential :!:
A circuit diagram may have a point called 'ground' but this will probably just be a convenient refrence point for test measurements. A battery powered circuit could call one power rail 'ground' for this purpose.

Phasor... your MEN sounds like the system we (UK) call PME - Protective Multiple Earth (language problems again) :roll: