This system is referred to as the grounding electrode system ges.
Grounding connectors electrical power to earth true or false.
The bare copper grounding wires terminate in a grounding bar in your main service panel and that grounding bar is in turn connected to a grounding rod driven deep into the earth outside your home.
Provides a path for surges in your power systems conducting electrical energy to earth to prevent arcing heating or an explosion during a lighting strike.
Not only does a false ground electrical receptacle lack an actual safe alternative path to earth through a separate ground path or grounding conductor but worse the ground connection by being wired to the neutral side of the circuit can cause dangerous electrical shock as well as damage to equipment plugged into such an electrical outlet.
Exposed metal parts of electrical equipment are connected to ground so that failures of internal insulation will trigger protective mechanisms such as fuses or circuit breakers in the circuit to remove power from the device.
This grounding system provides a path of least resistance for electricity to follow back to ground should a break in the wiring system allow electricity to leak out of the preferred system of black and white circuit wires.
A ground fault is a type of fault in which the unintentional pathway of the straying electrical current flows directly to the earth to the ground.
Within a building or single facility there is only one common ground for all of the electrical systems.