In article , "mc" wrote:
It need not go anywhere else. The ground symbol simply means "this is the
point we have chosen to measure voltages against."

In practice, as in my other message, it's the common side of numerous inputs
and outputs of the amplifier. See:

www.ai.uga.edu/mc/temp/ground.jpg

and also

www.ai.uga.edu/mc/temp/ground.pdf

That jpeg helped a lot...I never knew the ground symbol was there as a
convenience to schematics-writers. I think my main point of misunderstanding
is that I'm trying to combine all meanings of "ground" into one. For the
original question, it's safe to say ground (physically) means nothing. The tip
or the shield can be "ground" (as long as all the other components follow that
schema, otherwise it wouldn't be "ground" since they would all be different).

Exactly! You can pull electrons as well as push them. Electricity does not
consist of electrons. It consists of the *movement* of electrons or other
charged particles. In a wire, the charged particles are electrons. In a
battery, they are ions. Machines can be built where the charge is carried
by protons, or whatever.

Right. I think I was also messing myself up by the way I visualized the
movement of the signal. I would think of it as a single electron moving around
in a circle, when it should be a "string" (like a shoe string with ends
tied to form a circle) rotating like a merry-go-round. Is that a correct way
of thinking about it?