Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] History of Current Flow




On Feb 24, 2007, at 12:10 PM, David Abineri wrote:

I have always presumed that the issue of conventional current flow came
about because of lack of known details about atomic structure during the
early days of electricity, which may be a poor assumption on my part.

I wonder if someone can fill me in on the reason for the use of
conventional current vs actual electron movement? It would seem that if
the current flow had assumed that positive charges were moving through a
conductor, then when the electron and atomic structure was clarified
that we would have assigned the electron a positive charge rather than a
negative so as to agree with the prevailing understanding.


The test for "positive versus negative charges" already existed when electrons were discovered. Electrons turned out to be negative. Calling them positive would amount to redefining "positive." That would be a very radical change.

Ludwik