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Still cant understand why the flow of electric current is opposite to the flow of electrons.........!!!??????

thepeoplewhothink

by thepeoplewhothink at January 28, 2012

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Because Ben Franklin did not know about electrons when he established the direction as the direction a positive particle woudl go.  In liquids with positive and negative ions, the positive ions do move towards the negative terminal and they are called cations.  The negative ion movement is towards the posistive terminal and these ions are called anions.  Electrons were not discovered until late 1800s by Crooke and J. J. Thomson and the atomic model was eatablished in the 1900s.  By then the direction of an electron current was establlished in all texts and explanations along with the convenient right hand rule for the direction of electric and magnetic forces on moving charged particles.  Ben just didn't know electrons only moved in metal conductors, not the positive nucleus.  No one know about it until 1911 with Rutherford.  You can use a left hand rule with a negative charge moving, but no textbook uses that rule that I know of.

kroo_jteague kroo_jteague January 28, 2012

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