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WHY IS ELECTRIC CURRENT SAID TO BE OPPOSITE TO THE DIRECTION OF FLOW OF ELECTRONS?

WHY IS ELECTRIC CURRENT SAID TO BE OPPOSITE TO THE DIRECTION OF FLOW OF ELECTRONS?

Grade:10

5 Answers

Vikas TU
14149 Points
7 years ago
Basically,
the electric current is the flow of positive charges but by the convention it is said that the current would be in the direction opposite to the flow of electrons as they have negative charge associated with it.
.
And if u see in semicinductors or diodes the flow of current is also due to the flow of holes with the flow of elctrons in opposte direcn.
Umakant biswal
5349 Points
7 years ago
@ siddharth 
actually the thing is taken by means of concention , there is no logic here . when scientist was doing theexperiment on electric current , at that time , the current moves from +ve terminal to the -ve terminal while electrons are in the opposite case . 
and if u can refer , the electrons are discovered from the anode ray besically and these anode rays are deflected in electric and magnetic field in opposite direction . 
for that reason , they have taken the direction of current as opp to the direction of flow of electron . 
ALL THE BEST ..
Adarsh
733 Points
7 years ago
Even before the discovery of the electron the direction of current is taken to be from +ve to -ve terminal outside the battery or cell. But when the electron was discovered, the scientists found that electron move from -ve to +ve terminal outside te battery or cell. Thus, they found that the direction of electric current is opposite to that of the electron flow.
 
Hope you understand my answer.
 
dolly bhatia
54 Points
7 years ago
Current is defined as the flow of electrons within a conducting material like copper electrical wire. In metallic solids, like copper wire, electrons flow from a low potential to a high potential. Independent of type of charge metal carriers have, a conventional current is defined as electron flow in same direction as positive charges. So, if one has metals in which charge of carrier is negative, electrons will be travelling in opposite direction as the current. If situation is reversed and charge of carrier is positive, then electrons will be travelling in same direction of the current. If this works well with multiplicity of different metallic conductors, as charges will vary depending on material being used. So, the factor that makes the difference is the charge of conducting material; if negative, electron flow is opposite of that of the current and if positive, the same direction.
If electrons are flowing to the right across this screen, then that current is flowing to the left. So, left hand side of screen is the positive terminal and right hand side is negative terminal.           
+                  –
‘Electrons’ will flow towards opposite charge. That is right to left.
But, current will flow in opposite direction. That is from left to right.
—-> current
Thus, current does flow from positive to negative. Electrons do get pulled towards the positive charge. But, we define electric current to move in the opposite direction of electron flow.
 
smriti
29 Points
7 years ago
Every object has a tendency to move from a position where its potential energy is high to a position where its potential energy is minimum.when 2 conductors are joined by a metallic wire,the positive ions do not move as they are not free,but the electrons flow from high concentration to low till both the conductors acquire equal concentration of electrons.the conductor which has high concentration of electrons is said to be at negative or lower potential while the one having low concentration is said to be at high potential.Thus,the electrons move from low potential to high potential.(high concentration to low concentration)but to keep the convention of flow from a higher level to a lower level,instead of movement of electrons we say that electric current flows from high potential to low potential,i.e in the direction opposite to the flow of electrons.

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