Flow of electron is current?then why elctron flow direction indicated opposite to current flow in circuits?

Question

Flow of electron is current?then why elctron flow direction indicated opposite to current flow in circuits?

Answer 1

because the original thought (by Franklin, I believe) was that the positive charge was the charge that flowed...a flow of protons. And by convention, we kept this thought, despite the fact that we now know it is electrons rather than protons that do the moving.

Answer 2

Electrons flow is indicated in d reverse direction as they r -vely charged particles.Thats wy their flow is indicated 2wards +ve terminal (i.e High potential) in d direction opposite to dat of conventional current.Electrons always flow from low potential to high potential.

Answer 3

Hey....good question..!

You'll get satisfactory answer on : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_cu...

Thanx....Good Luck.!

Answer 4

Franklin has to guess at which way current flowed. he guessed wrong.

But it's just a convention and it works fine. Pretend that the current flow is due to positive electrons and everything works out fine.

Unless you are a physicist. Then you probably want to think of current flow due to electrons.

.

Answer 5

While the current in metals and semiconductors is due to electron flow there are actually other materials where the flow is due to positive ions or a combination of positive and negative particles.  

In a lead-acid battery it is positive hydrogen ions that are flowing.

So the answer to your question is because electrons have negative charge.

Answer 6

this is a good doubt abt current.....

i asked this to my lecturer for which he said that

it's just an assumption which was agreed by all scientists.

in every book it was given like that but only one author assumed the current direction along electron directio and explained working of semi conductors in his own way.

Answer 7

One respondent alleges that "An electron source is always at a lower potential from where they flow to an electron sink which must be at a higher (+) potential."

Oh, really?

So +1 volt is a higher potential than -100 volts is it?

Answer 8

Electrons are negative charge carriers and they carry electrical charge in a metallic conductor. By convention, a current is supposed to flow from a higher potential to a lower potential point in the conductor. An electron source is always at a lower potential from where they flow to an electron sink which must be at a higher (+) potential. Hence the electron flow and current flow(positive charge) are in opposite directions.