Is their a flow of electrons in conventional current?

Answer 1

Before, when science wasn't as advanced, scientists believed that an electric current flowed from the positive end to the negative end of a circuit. However, more advanced technology has allowed scientists to investigate this more thoroughly, and results state that electric current flows from the negative terminal to the positive terminal, thus called the electron flow. For reasons unknown, scientists have maintained the original idea of the current running from the positive terminal to the negative one, and have named it conventional flow.

Answer

Before the structure of the atom was understood, scientists such as Benjamin Franklin believed that an electric current was a flow of some sort of mysterious 'fluid' that moved from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. The high pressure was considered to be 'positive' pressure and the low pressure was considered to be 'negative pressure'.

Even though we now know that (in metallic conductors, anyway) that current is a flow of free electrons from negative to positive, for some weird reason many textbooks still show current as flowing from positive to negative! To differentiate between the two current directions, we use the terms 'electron flow', and 'conventional (or 'Franklinian') flow'.

Answer 2

No. In case of metallic conductors electric current is only due to the flow of electrons. But scientists in the olden days declared that electric current is due to flow of only positive charges. So that current is named as Conventional Current.

That is why conventional current direction and direction of flow of electrons are always opposite to each other. More over protons are tightly held within the nucleus with the nuclear force. So protons cannot flow at all.

In case of liquids and gases, electrons would not flow. Instead atoms would lose one or two electrons and so they become positive ions. Same way neutral atoms may pick up one or two electrons and so they become negative ions. Only these positive and negative ions are movable and current through liquid and gas is due to these ions only.

Answer 3

Conventional Current assumes that current flows out of the positive terminal, through the circuit and into the negative terminal of the source.

This is the current that a battery has for example.

Answer 4

Conventional current is a ficticious flow of positive charges. Quite often, the real current is made up of electrons; in this case, if the electrons move in one direction, the conventional current flows in the opposite direction, since it has the opposite charge.

Another Answer

'Conventional flow' is NOT 'a fictitious flow of positive charges'! It is simply an assumed direction that is opposite to real current (free electrons, in the case of metal conductors). It is based on the mistaken belief, by the likes of Benjamin Franklin, that current was a 'mysterious fluid' that moved through a conductor from its high pressure (positive) end to its low pressure (negative) end.

With the discovery of atoms and elections, it was realised that the direction assumed by Franklin was wrong, and current actually flowed from a conductor's negative end to its positive (or less negative) end.

Unfortunately, instead of abandoning conventional flow, most schools, colleges, and textbooks, continue to use it, introducing an unnecessary complication to the understanding of current. In my view, it should be abandoned.

Answer 5

Yes, in conventional current flow, electrons flow from the negative terminal to the positive terminal of a voltage source. This is opposite to the actual direction of electron flow, which is from the negative terminal to the positive terminal.