What is difference between electron current flow and conventional current flow?

Answer 1

There is no difference. The flow of electrons is current.

Answer 2

The old (conventional) current flow says that where there is a surplus of charge ( meaning positive) the current flows towards a deficient point (which means negative). However later discovery found that electrons which are negatively charged constitute this current flow and electrons move towards a positively charged body - not the other way around. This has now become the electron flow - the movement of electrons from surplus point (negative) towards a less neagative (deficient) point. So we can say now that in a complete circuit using for instance a battery, the electron current flows from the Negative side of the battery towards the Positive side via the external load.

Answer 3

To find this out, let's look at the history of electricity.

From about 2750 BC, people have acknowledged the existence of an electrical current, but did not understand it. The journey of understanding started with Thales, was improved upon by Benjamin Franklin, and almost finished by Michael Faraday. During electricity's development, electric instruments were constantly being fabricated, and the growth of electricity reached its ultimate point by the 1830s. Everything was complete and all electric instruments were in common usage.

Until this period, current was understood to be due to the flow of a charged particle, but they did not know its charge. In fact, it was not even known that a different type of charge existed. Therefore, they assumed that the current was due to positive charges.

When J J Thompson discovered the electron in 1897, it rocked the whole world of physics, because it had a different type of charge which was opposite to the charge they had known. Also, its movement produced current and the movement of the electron was opposite to that of the known "positive charge" for current generation. After extensive research, it was found that the current was indeed due to the electrons and not these "positive charges."

This meant that the current direction they had always assumed was wrong, and that the real current, due to electrons, was in the opposite direction. However, they could not bring this change to the theory of practical electricity as all instruments were well understood and were accustomed to using the existing laws. Since the current direction did not pose any problems practically, despite the fact that electrical instruments were fabricated assuming the opposite direction, the change was not made.

But, to differentiate the current due to "positive charges" and the current due to electrons, the terms "conventional current" and "electric current" were introduced. The word conventional means, "conforming or adhering to accepted standards."

So, conventional current is the current due to "positive charges," and electric current is the current due to electrons.

Despite the direction of these two currents being opposite, there is no change in their magnitudes as they are actually the same current, just understood differently.

Answer 4

In electron current flow, electrons move from the negative terminal to the positive terminal of a power source. This is the actual direction of electron movement. In conventional current flow, the movement of positive charges is considered, where current flows from the positive terminal to the negative terminal, opposite to the direction of electron movement.

Answer 5

the electrons flows from the negative to the positive terminal of the circuit and the current flows in the opposite direction.

hope this helps :)

Answer

In metallic conductors, an electric current is a flow of negatively-charged electrons. In the external circuit (i.e. not within the voltage source) electrons flow from negative to positive.

Unfortunately, before the discovery of atoms, an electric current was thought to be the flow of some sort of mysterious 'fluid', that flowed from a high-pressure (i.e. 'positive') to a low-pressure (i.e. negative) area.

To differentiate between these two 'directions', we use the terms 'electron flow' and 'conventional flow'.

For some strange reason, many textbooks tend to use 'conventional flow', even though we now know that (in metal conductors, at least!) current is really a flow of electrons!

Answer 6

The conventional definition of current preceded the discovery of the electron and its negative charge, so that it was defined as the flow of positive charges (from an area of more to an area with less). The actual flow of electricity is between the negatively-charged electrons, from negative to positive.

An Alternative Answer

Of course, the simple answer is that it isn't!

An electric current is the name given to a drift of electric charges through a conducting medium. For metal conductors, this is a flow of free electrons; for other conductors, such as electrolytes (conducting fluids), this is a flow of charged atoms, called 'ions'. In either case, when we talk about 'current direction', we are referring to the direction of current through the load and never through the source (e.g. within a battery or generator).

For metal conductors, a current is an extremely-slow drift of free electrons which, being negatively-charged, must flow from a negative potential to a positive (or 'less negative') potential. Before the discovery of atoms, however, scientists, such as Benjamin Franklin assumed that current was a flow of some sort of 'fluid' that, naturally, took place from a higher (i.e. 'positive') pressure to a lower ('negative') pressure -this mistaken belief was reinforced by Michael Faraday who discovered that metals were deposited on the positive plate during his electrolysis experiments (although he didn't believe current was a fluid, but a field). Note that conventional flow doesn'tdescribe a flow of 'positive charges', because the concept of 'charge' was unknown during Franklin's time!

So, for many years, current was wrongly-assumed to drift from positive to negative. As a result, many of the 'laws' relating the directions of electric fields and magnetic fields to potential and current direction were based on this incorrect 'Franklinian' or 'conventional' flow and, rather than change things, many textbooks (wrongly, in my view!) define current direction as 'conventional', rather than 'electron flow'.

The view that 'conventional flow' is a flow of 'positive charges' (sometimes seen in textbooks) in the opposite direction to electron flow is a complete misconception, as conventional flow pre-dates any knowledge of positive or negative electric charges and, of course, positive charges do not move through metal conductors.

There is no serious argument in favour of continuing to use conventional flow, and it would be much easier if conventional flow was abandoned, and everyone used electron flow as the standard -but that's unlikely to happen! Clearly, it's ridiculous to teach people that current through a metal conductor is a 'drift of electrons' but, then, to tell them 'but we pretend that it flows in the opposite direction' because of some mistake made by Benjamin Franklin!

At least one textbook has been published in two completely different versions: one for electron flow and the other for conventional flow -the content, otherwise, being identical.

Answer 7

Neither the electron flow theory or conventional flow theory have been proven correct or false. Although both are potentially valid, the electron flow theory is the more accepted of the two.

Answer 8

in a semiconductor the flow of protons are known as hole flow while the flow of electrons are known as electrons flow.

Answer 9

flow of charge is different from flow of electrons

because flow charge is the no of electrons passing per unit time threw a conductor

Answer 10

Conventional flow is still used by electricians. It incorrectly implies that current flows from positive to negative. Electron flow correctly states that it flows from negative to positive.