Why is Current "Backwards"??
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ค. 2017
- You may have heard it before-- "current is backwards". Well, not quite. Current is the flow of charge - figure out why that's inverted from the flow of electrons! And just so you know, engineers mix up the flow of electrons with current all the time-- eventually you'll just think of current, but it's good to have a foundational understanding of the difference.
If you need a refresher on all things electricity, check out our intro to Electricity here: • Electricity 101: Charg...
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Conventional Current (positive to negative) - versus - Electron Current (negative to positive). Either method will work when applied
I knew this already but I loved the way you explained it 👍
Current does not flow from the positive terminal to the negative. It never has and never will.. This is just a notation because they had it wrong for so long..
The positive terminal attracts electrons, so the flow of current IS opposite the direction of the electron movement. The negative terminal doesn't push the electrons. Current is not the movement of the electrons, it is the "flow" of them.
Although, she did draw the electron movement backwards. Should have drawn the rightmost leaving, then the next going right, etc.
The current flow from positive to negative is physically incorrect, but as Xyla correctly stated, convention had already been well established that this was the case. Actual current flow is from negative to positive, however after such a long time this could be too confusing for the everyday person to grasp, therefore dangerous, so we still use what is termed conventional current flow in today's electronic products, although the designers and engineers understand that's not actually the case physically, hence why we still say that current flows from positive to negative. It doesn't change the math, except in reality everything is backwards.
The US Navy taught electron flow to technicians for a long time. Made reintroduction to the civilian world irritating.
It could be VERY confusing for many lay people to grasp or understand why older products have conventional flow and newer have actual (particularly at the time when the discovery was made) which would therefore be dangerous. In order to prevent the destruction of equipment and possible fatalities caused by people wiring things in reverse, it was wisely decided to stick to what is now termed *conventional current flow* (+ve to -ve). A little knowledge (as opposed to complete understanding) is a dangerous thing after all.
The reality check is that it doesn't matter, as long as you are consistent in your description. Modern testing equipment will almost always follow this convention, it is most often taught this way in textbooks. For some reason some current books do use electron flow to describe the circuits (I have one TAB book that does), which adds to the confusion. I think of it as the movement of holes. Or the positive side as an electron vacuum cleaner.
[Another example is an aircraft at high altitude or in space. If it gets a rupture, things will be sucked towards it. The idea of being "blown" out of an airlock in space is incorrect and Will Riker on an episode of Star Trek pointed out]
beautifully explained 👍
What do you mean by that?
Another great explainer! I too learned to think of the "hole" left behind as the electron move as the + --> - terminal.
You asked for something else to explain... explain why a simple volt meter can't be used to test a battery.
If I had teachers like xyla I would have learned this much better.
nice work
"Same thing as dating, opposites attract"
Indeed!
Fortunately we are polar molecules.
To give some sense to the unreasonable, we can explain it this way: the electrons start flowing from the side which has more electrons than "needed" that is which has some plus of them -- and they flow towards the side that has deficit, minus of them.
When I heard about this clash of the historical direction and real direction, it was not difficult to understand it but it was HARD to accept it. So I had to convince myself about the system's usability with this reasoning.
Good to know. I always got confused when people started explaining the "backwards" stuff. Something didn't make sense. Thanks for explaining!
Woohoo! Glad you found it helpful. Any other topics that you've been confused about?
Hmm. What happens during a short circuit? What happens to the electrons and the electron flow? Maybe you could give some examples of common short circuit scenarios.
Great question! We address short circuits at ~4:00 here: th-cam.com/video/oiB77H0yVss/w-d-xo.html
You could make video about capacitors. There is A LOT to explain in that topic. Why electrolytic capacitors are polarized, and other not. And how they work in different circuit (dc/ac, serial/parallel conections). Its confusing topic and i think it would help to many beginners.
OK, so I delegate B & the B to relate monopole -> QM Superposition, Polar-Cartesian self-defining Fluxion->Infinitesimal time-timing sync-duration, aka Superspin Calculus In-form-ation substantiation dimensionality coordination aka Mathematics.., beginning with a text like Chemical Bonding Clarified through Quantum Mechanics by Pimentel & Spratly, because it's the "Music of the Spheres made sensible" for think intuitively with their hands-on Engineering type students. (Albert played Violin but needed to learn more about time-timing sync-duration identification from Henri)
Engineering Report on the continuous creation connection construction of the Universe pending. (And desperately needed)
why think of electric Charge instead of electrons flowing to the right if the electrons do actually flow to the right?
Great video. Well explained. One minor quip. I was taught that the electrons are pulled rather than pushed by the battery. Perhaps that is a dated understanding of the physics.
You are correct.
Thank you for this simple, straight-forward explanation of current vs. electron flow! However what you call "current", most instructors tend to refer to as "conventional current", because this has been "by convention" accepted as fact. None the less, it is WRONG, and instructors need to STOP teaching electronic theory this way! After all, you no longer hear instructors claiming that the Sun revolves around the Earth, or that the Earth is flat! Once again, people, "conventional current" is WRONG - Stop teaching it and get OVER it!
Many instructors don't bother teaching it because it's not required and can be confusing and as Xyla correctly stated, it makes no dangerous to the math.
The reason we stick to conventional current is because of the danger associated with a layperson's possible misunderstanding of it and unintentionally wiring things backwards, thereby avoiding the possible destruction of ( in some cases very expensive) electronic equipment and even fatalities. It's much easier, after all, to think of things as flowing from the positive (greater/higher/more plentiful) side to the negative (lesser/lower/reduced) side.
Always remember…“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
0.013 is this a valid frequency???
I got my bachelor's degree in computer & electrical engineering... And I don't remember learning this.. (Bad school? Bad student, maybe? 😄)
Well explained!
Concise and easy to understand. Bravo.
An hourglass is a good example to illustrate this. If you look at it closely and study its mechanical components in motion, you can see that actual, physical sand particles are moving through it - but if you take a step back and look only at the abstract values of "fullness" and "emptiness", it's obvious that both of them are moving in opposite directions within the hourglass. It makes absolutely no difference whether you choose the movement of emptiness to the top half or the movement of fullness to the bottom half as your focus, and neither does it matter that both these abstract movements are caused by the underlying _physical_ movement of sand particles and air molecules.
Nice,
There is ONE thing that we need to remember (from a French scientist Antoine Lavoisier), nothing get created, nothing get lost, everything is transformed.
Once you understand that, everything make more sense.
2:08 lol thats true XD
Current is not backwards, what is backwards is human understanding.
Very clear. Unless you care about the electrons you don't have to know about the sign of their charge. It would matter for a vacuum tube or electron gun, of course. In electrolysis/batteries you have both +ve and -ve ions flowing in opposite directions, so its actually good to have some abstract direction for current that's not affected by such details, and its arbitrary, just like driving on one side of the road - we all use the same convention, its easy (per continent!)
Current vs. electron flow is probably the #1 most annoying part of teaching electronics lol
*intents and purposes :)
Agreed! By the way, if anyone here has not yet checked out Electronzapdotcom 's TH-cam channel or Website, they NEED to do so now! He has MANY simple yet EXCELLENT videos, covering a multitude of electronics topics!
Let's change it
One of my instructors liked to draw a circle with "I believe" written inside of it, then he would instruct us to push the damn button after to many confused questions.
Blud did not answer why
Electricity is still mystery. 'Current direction' is usually being taught as a first lesson on electricity and it kills the topic instantly. it is clear for me that nothing is going trough the wire. Only charge matters, nothing else. The bigger surface area, the bigger charge build up. Actually, current 'I' equals charge 'q' over time 't', I =q/t. I know I sound at least crazy but I prefer to take things as they are. If something was running throughout the wire, we would have to produce matter on the other side. It even doesn't work like that in electricity as we need to create circuit to hold current (charge difference). First work must be done to 'separate' charges. Once they are neutralized, work may be retrieved. In my opinion the biggest misunderstanding in electricity. How does it look like in practice? Think once again how electricity is being utilized. Receivers create magnetic field, heat up matter or just do the opposite - separate charges (charging batteries). Whole science has been misunderstood by migrating electrons in electricity. They do jump between atoms/molecules in chemical reactions e.g.
Wow, I am amazing
opposites attract in dating, except when likes attract
This girl looks like the daughter of MR. INCREDIBLE from the animated movie THE INCREDIBLES. SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE HER!
The way I was taught is that when an electron is pulled from it's orbit, it leaves a HOLE. Think of the current as the direction of the holes.
Another way that I personally like, is to think of electrons as being backwards (hence negative) . So think of electrons as going up a DOWN escalator.
going up down escalators ... that should clarify it for everyone ... ;P
Thanks for giving Benjamin Franklin his due!
Hold on a sec! You say the electron goes to the negative end of the battery. Later you say the end of this cable (on the negative terminal)
is the positive side of the wire? Not sure but when I use DC I put the plus on the plus of the battery, not the opposite ? Did you make a mistake?
Or else explain.
Proof positive, or is that negative, that the electron theory is still a theory.
At 1:34 even you are confused! Electrons going to the negative end of the battery only later to say it's the positive. Gets even more mysterious when you start looking at semiconductors and you realise how a transistor works.
No youre confused. Flow of current is not same as flow of electron as she stated. Flow of charge as she stated in a battery connected is from positive end to negative end THRU the battery. Now if you talk about the wire connected to the battery then its negative to the load to the positive. Electron flow is still negative to positive. Current or charge is opposite direction of electron flow.
@@zlonewolf At the point I stated she says the electron goes to the negative end of the battery. Hence my comment.
True for DC but not AC
my life is literally complete.
i like your smile
Is this part of a whole? It just cut her off mid sentence.
Actually yes! Part of this was cut from the middle of our electronics 101 video since we thought it was important enough to deserve it's own video. You can see the rest of our intro to electronics here: th-cam.com/video/oiB77H0yVss/w-d-xo.html
thanks. I need more, because that current and electron thing is bothering me. I was about to call Mr Wizard. (wait they are telling me i'm too old, the new guy is Bill Nye, or Kyle hill)
you are beautiful
2:35 the speaker demonstrates she is more skirt than brains.
Conventional current is how charge flows. This is obvious when you realise electron flow in actually negative.
There never was a mistake regarding electron flow. It simply hadn't been discovered until later. (In Europe, see Faraday).
17th century electrical discoveries were make in Europe. Franklin did little more than repeat European experiments.
It IS a nice skirt, tho' ...
No doubt. And unlike current, a skirt can often go both ways!
Uhm, no, just change the whole thing, stop with this pretend "current" stuff