How does electrical ground work? Why does electricity want to travel to the earth, which doesn’t seem particularly conductive?

Question

Some additional questions I have to further understanding:

Ships don’t have ground, but why couldn’t electricity on a ship ground to the ocean the same way houses ground to the earth?

A structure will have a grounding rod dug into the earth. Does the dirt, soil, and rock composition that the structure is built on affect how willing current is to use the path?

In: 77

Answer 1

We intentionally connect part of the circuits power source to “ground”, this is why electricity “wants” to go there. It’s a path back to the source. If we didn’t make that connection to ground then it wouldn’t want to go there.