I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
He assumed the charge on a electron as negative . But direction of
current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
1Q Why ??

Another thing is ..........
Assume this situation ......

A B
------ E
o o


A and B r 2 pointz . And below them are stationary electrons . E is an
electric field.
2Q If the Electric Field E is applied to the Left direction ( as
shown by the arrow ) then , in which direction will the electron
flow ??And in which direction will the current flow ??
And Why ??
I read in a textbook that in this situation the electron will travel
to the right ( to the direction opposite to that of the electric field
And a +ve charge will flow in the direction of the field .
How and Why ??

Please Help.
Thankz

On a sunny day (Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:15:43 -0700) it happened Sith Lord
wrote in
. com:

I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
He assumed the charge on a electron as negative . But direction of
current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
1Q Why ??

Another thing is ..........
Assume this situation ......

A B
------ E
o o


A and B r 2 pointz . And below them are stationary electrons . E is an
electric field.
2Q If the Electric Field E is applied to the Left direction ( as
shown by the arrow ) then , in which direction will the electron
flow ??And in which direction will the current flow ??
And Why ??
I read in a textbook that in this situation the electron will travel
to the right ( to the direction opposite to that of the electric field
And a +ve charge will flow in the direction of the field .
How and Why ??

Please Help.
Thankz

Electrons are negative charged particles.
They are attracted by a positive pole.
The direction of current was standardized the wrong way long time ago.
The clearest thing to show this all is the vacuum tube:
The cathode emits negative electrons that are attracted by a positive anode.
Yes some electrician may state the current moves from anode to cathode.
Always follow the electron flow! And all will be clear.

On Aug 1, 12:15 pm, Sith Lord wrote:
I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
He assumed the charge on a electron as negative . But direction of
current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
1Q Why ??

Another thing is ..........
Assume this situation ......

A B
------ E
o o

A and B r 2 pointz . And below them are stationary electrons . E is an
electric field.
2Q If the Electric Field E is applied to the Left direction ( as
shown by the arrow ) then , in which direction will the electron
flow ??And in which direction will the current flow ??
And Why ??
I read in a textbook that in this situation the electron will travel
to the right ( to the direction opposite to that of the electric field
And a +ve charge will flow in the direction of the field .
How and Why ??

Please Help.
Thankz

Current is defined as the direction in which electric charge flows.

Suppose I put a positive charge on 30 cats. If I herd them to the
right, then current is flowing to the right, and vice versa.

On the other hand, if I put a negative charge on the cats (lets call
them electrons now) and herd them to the right, then the current
is flowing to the left, because that is the direction of increasing
positive charge, or decreasing negative charge if you prefer.

Positive milk (electric field) attracts negatively charged cats and
repels positive charge carriers, but now we're just getting silly.

--S

"Sith Lord" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
He assumed the charge on a electron as negative . But direction of
current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
1Q Why ??

Franklin knew nothing of electrons. He figured that
electricity flowed like a fluid from a higher potential
to a lower one. He arbitrarily designated the charge
resulting from a certain operation (probably
triboelectric charging of a glass rod by rubbing with
a silk cloth or some such thing) as "positive", and the
opposite charge "negative".

On Aug 1, 9:15 am, Sith Lord wrote:
I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
He assumed the charge on a electron as negative .

No, he did not. He knew nothing at all about electrons.

But direction of
current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
1Q Why ??

Because most current consists of flowing negative charge (electrons),
so JUST BY CONVENTION is considered in the opposite direction. Put it
another way: if, back in the beginning, we had adopted the opposite
sign convention, electrons would have been declared to have positive
charge and electron flow would be in the same direction as current
flow. That's not how things emerged historically, and we are just
stuck with the results.


Another thing is ..........
Assume this situation ......

A B
------ E
o o

A and B r 2 pointz.

I suppose your mean "are two points"? You are not chatting with your
buds here, but are asking questions in a technical/scientific
newgroup, so have enough respect for us to write properly, please.

And below them are stationary electrons . E is an
electric field.
2Q If the Electric Field E is applied to the Left direction ( as
shown by the arrow ) then , in which direction will the electron
flow ??And in which direction will the current flow ??
And Why ??
I read in a textbook that in this situation the electron will travel
to the right ( to the direction opposite to that of the electric field
And a +ve charge will flow in the direction of the field .

That is correct.

How and Why ??

Well, it is a fundamental fact of nature that there are two kinds of
charge, and they flow in opposite directions in an electric field.
Just BY CONVENTION, we define "positive" to be the type that goes in
the same direction as the field; then, of course, the negative one
goes in the opposite direction. If your question is intended to be
"deeper" (like, 'why are there two kinds of charges?'), then we are
getting out af the realm of science and into philosophy. We do know,
though, that if there were not two kinds of charges, there would be
nobody alive to ask questions about electric charge.

R.G. Vickson


Please Help.
Thankz

@ R.G. Vickson
Thankz a lot Sir. I didnt mean to be rude or indisciplined. Please
pardon me if i've been so. And Thankz again . It was a very
explanatory answer .
Even the cat one by Smallpond was good although silly

Sith Lord wrote:
I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
He assumed the charge on a electron as negative . But direction of
current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
1Q Why ??

Another thing is ..........
Assume this situation ......

A B
------ E
o o


A and B r 2 pointz . And below them are stationary electrons . E is an
electric field.
2Q If the Electric Field E is applied to the Left direction ( as
shown by the arrow ) then , in which direction will the electron
flow ??And in which direction will the current flow ??
And Why ??
I read in a textbook that in this situation the electron will travel
to the right ( to the direction opposite to that of the electric field
And a +ve charge will flow in the direction of the field .
How and Why ??

Please Help.
Thankz

Current flow is a mathematic artific to keep track of current and
often has little to nothing to do with real charge movement.

If Franklin had known about electrons, he would have probably
chosen the other direction.

The "conventional current" method says current flows from positive
to negative.

The "electron current" method says current flows from negative to
positive.

Mathematicaly, it doesn't matter which way you assume as long as
you are consistant.

Concider a long tube with a vacuum and electrodes at the ends connected
to a voltage source.

If electrons or negative ions are moving in there, they are going from
negative to positive.

If protons or positive ions are moving in there, they are going from
positive to negative.

If you put a resistor in series with the tube, the positive end of
the resistor is always the same whether you fill the tube with
positive particles or negative particles.


--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

On Aug 1, 11:15 am, Sith Lord wrote:
I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
He assumed the charge on a electron as negative . But direction of
current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
1Q Why ??

Another thing is ..........
Assume this situation ......

A B
------ E
o o

A and B r 2 pointz . And below them are stationary electrons . E is an
electric field.
2Q If the Electric Field E is applied to the Left direction ( as
shown by the arrow ) then , in which direction will the electron
flow ??And in which direction will the current flow ??
And Why ??
I read in a textbook that in this situation the electron will travel
to the right ( to the direction opposite to that of the electric field
And a +ve charge will flow in the direction of the field .
How and Why ??

Please Help.
Thankz

It really is a matter of definition and convention and nothing more.
In Franklin's day, all that was really understood was that there were
two kinds of charge A and B, and that like charges repel (A-A or B-B)
and unlike charges attract (A-B). For *qualitative* modeling, that's
all that's necessary. But for *quantitative* modeling, something where
you can calculate something and see if that matches a numerical
measurement, there's a little "aha" moment where you recognize numbers
that behave the same way: positive and negative numbers. If you
*choose* to call repelling a positive force, then it's convenient to
stop labeling charges as A and B and start labeling them as positive
and negative, because two positive charges multiply to a positive
number (repel) and two negative charges multiply to a positive number
(repel), but a positive and a negative charge multiply to a negative
number (attract). Once you realize this, then the only thing to figure
out is whether to call A positive and B negative, or A negative and B
positive, and the choice is completely arbitrary.

Franklin was looking at the A charge on the silk cloth and the B
charge on the glass rod and he knew that by rubbing the two, initially
neutral, either some B charge had left the cloth and moved to the rod,
or some A charge had left the rod and had moved to the cloth. He
guessed that the mobile charges were the ones on the rod, and so he
called those positive, and it stuck. As it turns out, he was wrong,
and the ones that are more mobile are the ones that end up on the
cloth, but it stuck anyway, and in the end it doesn't matter. Here's
why:

Microscopically, current is defined in the following way:
I = n*e*v*A, where
n = volume density of the charge carriers, no matter what they are
e = charge of each charge carrier, whether positive or negative
v = average drift speed of the charge carrier
A = cross sectional area of the current flow.

So if you've got current that is traveling from left to right, it's
fair to ask whether that is positive charges moving from left to
right, or negative charges moving from right to left. If you look at
the equation above and call "towards the right" positive, then you'll
see it doesn't matter. For positive charges moving to the right, e is
positive, v is positive, and I then is positive (toward the right).
For negative charges moving to the left, e is negative, v is negative,
and I is *still* positive (toward the right).

In fact, it wasn't until the Hall effect that people knew for sure
which was the dominant charge carrier in a wire.

PD

Electrical engineers are trained to follow the flow of "holes", not
electrons.
Holes being the space devoid of an electron.

The flow of holes is opposite of the flow of electrons.

"Jan Panteltje" wrote in message
...
: On a sunny day (Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:15:43 -0700) it happened Sith Lord
: wrote in
: . com:
:
: I'm confused with this Ben Franklin "thing" .
: He assumed the charge on a electron as negative . But direction of
: current is opposite to that of the direction of the electron flow .
: 1Q Why ??
:
: Another thing is ..........
: Assume this situation ......
:
: A B
: ------ E
: o o
:
:
: A and B r 2 pointz . And below them are stationary electrons . E is an
: electric field.
: 2Q If the Electric Field E is applied to the Left direction ( as
: shown by the arrow ) then , in which direction will the electron
: flow ??And in which direction will the current flow ??
: And Why ??
: I read in a textbook that in this situation the electron will travel
: to the right ( to the direction opposite to that of the electric field
: And a +ve charge will flow in the direction of the field .
: How and Why ??
:
: Please Help.
: Thankz
:
: Electrons are negative charged particles.
: They are attracted by a positive pole.

How come they go the wrong way inside a battery?