Why is it impossible to make a circuit without wires through the "ground"?

Question

Electronics

Good afternoon! I am studying material based on Petzold’s book “The Secret Stake of Informatics”, I’ll say right away that there is a complete zero in electronics and this is my first acquaintance with this topic. The book in chapter 4 gives an example with a battery, a light bulb and a switch and says that instead of a common wire, you can use the ground, since the ground is a good conductor due to its size, but on condition that a copper pin driven into the ground is used. So I have 2 questions here. The first why, then, it is impossible to do without wires at all, since you can replace them with earth, and the second, how do electrons understand that they need to go in the direction of my pin, and not the neighbor's, for example? And another question is why the earth is used specifically for the minus of the battery, and not for the plus?

Answer 1

This diagram is a disgusting illustration because it contains the simplifications and errors of bad non-fiction literature. In fact, as it is drawn there, nothing will work. This scheme is an incorrect simplification of the operation of a single-wire telegraph, where, firstly, a very high voltage was used, and, secondly, the effect of the capacitance of the earth was used with might and main, which, according to the principles of conduction physics, is much less resistant to alternating current. Since your knowledge of physics is very confused and small, it is better to skip this chapter, because you will not be able to wade through the errors and unacceptable simplifications that are made in the text.
The current does not "know" where to flow - the electrons always move under the influence of an electromotive force, roughly - a voltage created by a voltage source. This force arises as a result of an electric field applied to the conductor, and this happens when a voltage source (for example, a battery) is connected to it.
Even if the earth really had the same conductivity as the metal of the wires, it would, of course, be impossible to do without wires at all, because by sticking two contacts from the voltage source into the ground you would simply short-circuit them.