GCSE PHYSICS - Electricity - Why are Circuits drawn using Conventional Current instead of Electron Flow?

gcsescience.com 1 gcsescience.com

Why do Electric Circuits use Conventional Current?

Benjamin Franklin realized that electricity was a
flow of charge and he believed that
charge flowed from positive to negative.
This is called conventional current but he got it wrong.
This was long before atomic theory had advanced
to the level of knowing about electrons and protons.

We now know that electrons flow from negative to positive.
This is called electron flow. By the time this was
discovered, a large number of electrical circuits had
already been drawn and since it makes no
practical difference, it was decided to keep the
conventional direction of current flow for circuit diagrams.

Links Electricity Revision Questions

gcsescience.com Physics Quiz Index Electricity Quiz gcsescience.com

Home GCSE Chemistry GCSE Physics