Talk:Electrical Engineering Fundamentals/Basics of Electricity

very confusing paragraph.
"This seems really simple until later on when it is realized that current usually flows in a positive manner from the positive to negative. But as described, the electrons are traveling toward the positive end to balance it out. This is still true and I am not contradicting myself, as we define "current" as going the opposite way from the flow of electrons simply due to convention. The flow of electrons is negative because it is a negatively charged particle moving toward a positively charged area. So what is flowing in the opposite direction? The holes are "flowing" in a positive direction, and if it was possible to chart the change in charge of single atoms one would see that as the negative flows toward the positive, so the positive flows toward the negative."

I think the problem is that 'current' is being used in two ways here, to describe the flow of electrons, and to describe the direction in which the "holes" for electrons to fill are moving. I'm guessing that is what is being described, but as I said, I can't really understand the passage and its meaning. 173.112.128.197 19:58, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Explanation

Current is the flow of electric charge, it doesnt bother itself with whether that is positive or negative charge. By convention, current direction is described by the positive flow. Because in most everyday conductors, the flow of charge is facilitated by the flow of electrons, which are negatively charged, this convention may be confusing.

However, in many systems its possible to have a flow of strictly positive charges, and its also possible to have one where both negative and positive charges together constitute current. An example is when a person is electrocuted, positve ions (K+ Ca+ Na+) flow towards the negative voltage and negative ions (Cl-) flow towards the positive voltage.

I hope Ive helped. I'll read the article to see if I can clear anything there.DM-Lingit (discuss • contribs) 21:34, 21 November 2015 (UTC) Okay I replaced the misconception where I found it, and also changed "flow of current" to what is correct (and probably what is meant.). For future editors, current is the flow of charge. Flow of current is the flow of the flow of charge, a second order derivative probably meant to be introduced later (around the time of caps and inductors).DM-Lingit (discuss • contribs) 21:34, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Very helpful!
I found this page to be extremely helpful. Thanks to those who helped create this page. I have an accredited degree in computer science but the fundamentals of electrical engineering are still weak points, and this page helped. Adallace (discuss • contribs) 00:22, 15 August 2017 (UTC)