Electron flow?

[SnowDrifter]

Just thought about this...

Since electrons have a negative charge - that would make it so that it's the negative post is the side with the excess of electrons. That means that the electrons flow out of the negative post and into the positive post.

Or so I reasoned... If this isn't right, could someone give me a very technical explanation as to why?

Thanx

[Emmet]

You are right, the flow of electrons is from negative to positive,

Years ago they reckoned it was from positive to negative because they didnt know any better, so it became known that electricity flows from positive to negative. This is called conventional current.

Edit: realised I sounded very vague, both ways are right, you can draw diagrams using conventional current or electron flow, as long as you use them consistently, when electricity was discovered they assumed it was from positive to negative, they were wrong, but since it was quite a while before they discovered otherwise they simply called it conventional current when they did realise. Conventional current is easier to work with as certain symbols like diodes and transistors, also some rules for electromagnets were made using conventional current idea. Also why its called the negative, because franklin thought it had a deficiency of charge which was why he thought the charge flowed from pos>neg, when in reality it has a surplus of electrons.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Emmet