Which Way Does Electricity REALLY Flow??

[Bothrops]

So does it matter knowing which way electricity flows? hmmmm, ponder this I must.

A less simplistic explanation can be found in the wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_current, under the section heading "Conventions".

The gist is that you can talk about the flow of electric current in terms of positive charges or negative charges, to the same effect. For sake of communication, it's important to have a convention for a reference direction.

[KuroChou]

I think I've taken a bit more voltage than that. I used to work on computer monitors. I've made few mistakes before, when discharging the anode on a CRT.

I did a few experiments in junior high, involving applying aluminum foil to the front of a CRT monitor to catch the static differential, and then grounding it.
Consistently metered over 14kV. Fun stuff.

[Skottsaber]

Here is how I (correctly or not) understand it.

Negative electrons flow from negative to positive, but they move due to positive potential, which flows the other way.

That might be wrong, but for the basic electronics I do, it seems to work

[DarthPawley]

Conventional current flows from the + (anode) to the - (cathode). This convention dates from the time before the nature of electrons and their role as charge carriers was understood.
In a wire, electrons flow from the cathode to the anode; this is the reverse of the conventional current.
As cardcollector noted it really doesn't matter. Ignore the direction the electrons are going & where reduction and oxidation are occurring in the battery; it's irrelevant for our purposes. Be consistent and concern yourself only with conventional current as do the electronics manufacturers.

[cardcollector]

Conventional current flows from the + (anode) to the - (cathode). This convention dates from the time before the nature of electrons and their role as charge carriers was understood.
In a wire, electrons flow from the cathode to the anode; this is the reverse of the conventional current.
As cardcollector noted it really doesn't matter. Ignore the direction the electrons are going & where reduction and oxidation are occurring in the battery; it's irrelevant for our purposes. Be consistent and concern yourself only with conventional current as do the electronics manufacturers.

So, for our purposes...

We use conventional current, which means we view the flow of electricity as Positive (+) to negative (-).

Thanks for clearing that up Pawley.

[Equality 7-2521]

Here's the way my brain conceptualizes electric current:

1) Atomic particles are inherently charged - positive or negative.

2) Charge Carriers are a particular particle with its respective charge in the context of some medium (metal, plasma etc.) either absorbing or releasing energy.

3) Current is the net transmission of charge carriers at a specific point in an electrical flow - either more positive movement, or more negative.

4) For electrical conductivity in solids the charge carrier is the electron, a particle with a negative charge.

5) In the atomic structure, electrons adhere to a discrete location in the outer shell of the atom - *kinda* like dimples in a golf ball.

6) A particular dimple can hold an electron, or it can be empty. These empty dimples are called holes.

7) Populated dimples present a negative charge, holes present a positive charge.


Now, imagine 100 golf ball dimples in a line (this is where the ball analogy breaks down a bit, but bear with me) with every 10th one being an empty dimple, the rest populated. Starting with the 99th dimple (the last one is a hole) imagine each electron moving to the next dimple... 99 goes to 100, 98 to 99, and so on. Electrons would be moving towards # 100, but the holes would be moving towards #1. Charge is moving in both directions: negatively by the shifting electrons, positively by the shifting holes.

What we call conventional current is an electrical flow in the direction of positive shift, which in the case of metals, is the holes - but the actual particles, the electrons, are flowing in the opposite direction.

There's certainly more to it, but this is about the extent of my grasp. Hope this adds some clarity.

[Satsu Jin]

There are two ways to look at current flow in electronics. Conventional current flow....positive to negative. Also there's what's called "Hole" flow. This is in the reverse direction....it's just perspective...normally used when referring to solid state devices....when the positively charge electron of conventional flow moves to the more negative...it leaves a "hole" so to speak....so in essence...the "holes" are flowing in the reverse direction of the electron. Least that's how I learned it many years ago.