We know that in a battery electron flows from-ve to +ve terminal. But
the direction of conventional current is considered just opposite
(i.e. form +ve to –ve). Why is such convention followed. What problem
will arise if we consider the direction of flow of electrons and the
conventional current the same.

Thanks

Animesh Maurya wrote:

We know that in a battery electron flows from-ve to +ve terminal. But
the direction of conventional current is considered just opposite
(i.e. form +ve to -ve). Why is such convention followed. What problem
will arise if we consider the direction of flow of electrons and the
conventional current the same.

The convention is historic possibly going back to Benjamin Franklin. In
circuit analysis, the signs of currents and voltages do not matter as
long as they are consistent thus there is no particular reason to
change. Only in studying the physics of devices is it possible to assign
an "actual" direction of current flow. This gets muddy as well because
displacing a negative charge in a semiconductor is nearly
indistinguishable from displacing a positive charge the opposite
direction. About the only time I ever worried about the "real" direction
of current flow was back in the vacuum tube days when it occasionally
mattered.

Chuck
--
... The times have been,
That, when the brains were out,
the man would die. ... Macbeth
Chuck Simmons

Animesh Maurya wrote:

We know that in a battery electron flows from-ve to +ve terminal. But
the direction of conventional current is considered just opposite
(i.e. form +ve to –ve). Why is such convention followed. What problem
will arise if we consider the direction of flow of electrons and the
conventional current the same.

When Emil Fischer went to determine the absolute configurations of
glucose's four chiral centers he had to start somewhere. Given 16
possible aldohexose optical isomers, he chose one as a working
hypothesis and started his trek making all of them. As luck would
have it, he guessed the right optical isomer at the very start.
That's a 6.25% chance of guessing correctly.

When Benjamin Franklin went to assign charges to triboelectrically
charged pairs of stuff, he ended up giving the electron a negative
charge - 50/50 and he blew it. Forevermore mathematical consistency
demanded that when negatively charged real stuff went thisaway, the
associated physical quantity went thataway.

Physicists have envied organikers ever since.

OTOH, consider the elegance of the physics situation! If you had a
colliding ring particle accelerator boosting protons and electrons,
you would be relativistically smashing currents flowing in the same
direction.

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" The Net!

What the **** was that uncle al ?????
Electric flows pos to pos ,,,
+ +
electric flows to less energy .
and will it flow from neg to pos or pos to neg is dencity of charges .
A flow to less neg and a flow to less pos .
Dump 2 bats out and disasemble them after thet are charged.
Charge one only 1/2 way.............befor disasemble ......
Now ,,put the 1/2 charged pos with the full charge pos as one new bat .
What will happen ( al ) when a lamp is coneted to the post wile boath
sides are pos charge but one is more pos than the other ??
WILE your charging the bats ,,,take one lead at a time and place the
lamp in the line on each side ,,,you have a lamp in the neg wire wile
theneg is on the neg post wile you charge the bat..... what happend ??
Its not a flow of direction at all..........
its the biggest change in potental going to the least. CHANGE in
potental !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Biggest CHANGE not biggest CHARGE because it may be a small charger on
a big bat but the bat by its self is not changing.
YOU best get real real coherant in the mind befor you unravel electric
curents.
I dont think uncle al is deap enouph to do it without google.

(Animesh Maurya) wrote in message . com...
We know that in a battery electron flows from-ve to +ve terminal. But
the direction of conventional current is considered just opposite
(i.e. form +ve to ?ve). Why is such convention followed. What problem
will arise if we consider the direction of flow of electrons and the
conventional current the same.

It is purely a matter of definition/convention.

Why do you limit your argument to electrons in metal? If you go to
the beach and drop a battery into the Pacific Ocean it will short out
rather quickly. There are few, if any, free electrons travelling
between the battery's terminals. For the most part you have Na+ ions
going one way and Cl- ions going the other way, and "current" going
only one way. Current is the vector integral over a surface of the
product of the carrier velocity-density vector times the carrier
charge value.

In semi-conductors you have "holes". These are electron vacancies in
the crystal structure. Although in this case current is often though
of as electrons "jumping" from hole to hole, Hall-Effect measurements
(and Quantum Mechaninal analysis) say you have positive charge
carriers.

In a particle accelerator you may choose to accelerate positrons. In
this case you have positive charge carriers.

Electrical definitions are "object oriented". It is usually not
necessary to know the nature of the charge carriers. That is an
encapsulated sub-level of detail.

-Bruce

(Bruce Bowen) wrote in message . com...
(Animesh Maurya) wrote in message . com...
We know that in a battery electron flows from-ve to +ve terminal. But
the direction of conventional current is considered just opposite
(i.e. form +ve to ?ve). Why is such convention followed. What problem
will arise if we consider the direction of flow of electrons and the
conventional current the same.

It is purely a matter of definition/convention.

Why do you limit your argument to electrons in metal? If you go to
the beach and drop a battery into the Pacific Ocean it will short out
rather quickly. There are few, if any, free electrons travelling
between the battery's terminals. For the most part you have Na+ ions
going one way and Cl- ions going the other way, and "current" going
only one way. Current is the vector integral over a surface of the
product of the carrier velocity-density vector times the carrier
charge value.

In semi-conductors you have "holes". These are electron vacancies in
the crystal structure. Although in this case current is often though
of as electrons "jumping" from hole to hole, Hall-Effect measurements
(and Quantum Mechaninal analysis) say you have positive charge
carriers.

In a particle accelerator you may choose to accelerate positrons. In
this case you have positive charge carriers.

Electrical definitions are "object oriented". It is usually not
necessary to know the nature of the charge carriers. That is an
encapsulated sub-level of detail.

-Bruce


A new question arised in my mind after reading your comment, that do
exchange of electrons of metallic conductor take place when we connect
that conductor across a battery.
In more details I want to say that electron flow from –ve terminal of
the battery, reaches the conductor and pushes the electrons in it.
Electrons which are present as a result are attracted towards the +ve
terminal of the battery where it gets neutralized.

Thanks

Bill Vajk wrote in message ...
Animesh Maurya wrote:

Electrons which are present as a result are attracted towards the +ve
terminal of the battery where it gets neutralized.


Really? LOL

Hi Bill

I really dont know it. Iam not sure that Iam right. Please help me to
go in the correct direction.

Animesh Maurya

Animesh Maurya wrote:

Bill Vajk wrote

Animesh Maurya wrote:

Electrons which are present as a result are attracted towards the +ve
terminal of the battery where it gets neutralized.

Really? LOL

Hi Bill

I really dont know it. Iam not sure that Iam right. Please help me to
go in the correct direction.

Make the google search engine your friend. Let's talk about
lead-acid battery. Start he

http://www.nlectc.org/txtfiles/batte...e.htm#Equation 1

A brief explanation.

One of the plates in a charged lead acid battery is Pb. The
other is PbO_2. The electrolyte is sulphuric acid H_2SO_4.
As the battery discharges both plates are converted to be
constituted of the same material and the acid becomes water.

Then go to this page (one up):

http://www.nlectc.org/txtfiles/batte...a-cont.htm#eqs

Your electron is not "neutralized." Taking the equation for the
chemical reaction in a lead acid battery, figure out the
sequence of events that provides the electron, and what
happens to it.

There ya go, you have the leg up that you deserve, the rest
is up to you to figure out. Hint: It is called a storage
battery for a reason.