Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: CelticKhemist2000 on November 29, 2020, 11:54:48 AM
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I'm studying voltage, current, and resistance. I started to get confused when he started talking about how BF thought electrons flowed from a positive terminal to a negative one. Then Joseph Thompson discovered that the opposite was actually true. Then he said instead of changing the names of all the batteries in the world, "conventional current" is still taught even though it's wrong. This is perplexing to me. If JT discovered that conventional current was false in the 19th century than I doubt there were many batteries around then. Why would "conventional current" still be taught even though it's incorrect? He said that when circuits are designed they use conventional current, but engineers use the opposite of conventional. Why the unnecessary confusion?
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It is/was not problem with batteries, but with every electrical device. There were already plenty of them around the time JT made his discovery, and the convention was already well established.
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Are there any symbols or indicators as to which is being used for certain components or schematics?
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When dealing with currents (as in electrical engineering and electronics) direction of the motion of electrons almost never matters, we just speak about current flowing following the original convention.
When it matters (like in describing the redox chemistry, or mechanisms behind behavior or semiconductor devices) we typically don't speak about current per se, but abut behavior of electrons, so making a mistake is rather unlikely.
But no, I am not aware of any special symbols used to distinguish, unless we treat I for current and e- for electrons as "special".
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I appreciate your help, thanks man!