Voltage in a circuit

[StilgarMD]

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Why do electrons in a circuit move from a "low potential anode" to a "high potential cathode" in a circuit with a battery. this strikes me as odd and i sense some sort of convention about it but i'd like it if someone could explain it to me, and why it seems to clash with the typical "High to low" rule typically seen.

 

[Mornhavon]

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[StilgarMD]

i already understand those things, but thank you for the summary. my main issue is the physic's books explanation of the phenomena of electrons moving.

Current, defined as positive charge, does seem to obey the rule of High potential to low potential (from Cathode to anode). is my confusion in that im mixing up current with electrons? and if this is true, why do electrons, which move in the opposite direction, seemingly travel from a place of low potential (the anode) to a place of high potential (the cathode). i am not confused about the pieces and their labels or what any of it means, just how the statement "electrons go from low potential to high potential" isn't a conflict with the general rule of diffusion.

 

[Mornhavon]

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[TieuBachHo]

Why do electrons in a circuit move from a "low potential anode" to a "high potential cathode" in a circuit with a battery. this strikes me as odd and i sense some sort of convention about it but i'd like it if someone could explain it to me, and why it seems to clash with the typical "High to low" rule typically seen.

I don't really remember exactly how but here goes the story. The first guy thought there were some sort of positive charges that conducted electricity but he/she didn't know exactly what it was. Thus, the convention went from positive to negative. The second guy/gal investigated and found out it was actually negative charges that conducted electricity (which is electrons).
Regardless, electrical charges (positive) go from high potential cathode to low potential anode. However, electrons are negative, they revese from anode to cathode.
OR you can think of what considered high is where there are a lot of them. Anode has a lot of negative charges, so those negative charges would want to go to the positive end.
When we speak of current, we talk conventionally about positive charges would flow, not electrons.

 

[anon4895]

i already understand those things, but thank you for the summary. my main issue is the physic's books explanation of the phenomena of electrons moving.

Current, defined as positive charge, does seem to obey the rule of High potential to low potential (from Cathode to anode). is my confusion in that im mixing up current with electrons? and if this is true, why do electrons, which move in the opposite direction, seemingly travel from a place of low potential (the anode) to a place of high potential (the cathode). i am not confused about the pieces and their labels or what any of it means, just how the statement "electrons go from low potential to high potential" isn't a conflict with the general rule of diffusion.

I think the cathode is positive and the anode is negative. Since likes repel and opposites attract it makes sense an electron which has a negative charge would move that way. Electrons are what is actually moving in the current circuit but we deal with current as the flow of positive charge by convention so when you have a current to the left it's really a bunch of electrons moving to the right.

EDIT: I think I'm wrong about cathodes being positive (mixed up with cations).

 

[Mornhavon]

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[LoLCareerGoals]

Why would you sweat stuff like this? It is not like any of these definitions were ordained by some higher power. People came up with them, they aren't always neat and consistent with every other convention in the world, just memorize it and move on.
And yes in post above someone describes positive charge movement is in the opposite direction consistent with the neat definition you are asking for. In p-semiconductors, you can think of positively charged "holes" moving, so it is all in the convention.

 

[sciencebooks]

Why would you sweat stuff like this? It is not like any of these definitions were ordained by some higher power. People came up with them, they aren't always neat and consistent with every other convention in the world, just memorize it and move on.
And yes in post above someone describes positive charge movement is in the opposite direction consistent with the neat definition you are asking for. In p-semiconductors, you can think of positively charged "holes" moving, so it is all in the convention.

Lol, this attitude has served me well in these cases. 90% of the time it's helpful to really try and UNDERSTAND over memorize but sometimes it's just out of our hands and not worth the time you could be using to improve other things.