You can find this information in any standard college text regarding
electricity, as well as many high school texts. The source of the
"disagreement" is a misunderstanding among the first researchers of
electricity.
Electricity was known of long before Benjamin Franklin. It was not
understood very well, but it was known of. Scientists knew there were two
kinds of electric charge. They knew there was electric current. Scientists
believed that the opposite charges moved similarly in opposite directions.
They defined one as positive and one as negative. They defined current to
be in the direction of the positive charges. Later, they learned of their
mistake.
Only the negative charges move freely in conductors. Electrons had been
defined as the negative charges. Current had been defined "backwards". It
was too late to redefine all of electrical physics, so the inconvenience
holds to this day. The direction that the electrons move is opposite the
direction that current points. Because of how electricity works, it isn't
much of a problem. Negative charge moving to the left through a wire has
the same effect as positive charge moving to the right. So long as the
total charge in the wire (protons and electrons) remains balanced, no
trouble occurs.
Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Physics Instructor
Illinois Central College
