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[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 19 points 5 days ago

So, it doesn't actually change anything; everything still works the same.

But textbooks need to be thrown away and remade, every circuit diagram, every electrical engineering plan, decades of research and research papers have to be combed and corrected, or accept that they're wrong.

While technically possible, it would create colossal risk and unending chaos and It's environmentally unsound, for something that doesn't change anything in the end.

Lazy is not checking your mail.

Refusing to turn reality on its head for a null change in the end is something else entirely.

[-] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago

Refusing to turn reality on its head for a null change in the end is something else entirely.

I do agree with you, just want to give voice to the other side of this. Don't underestimate just how much of a barrier this confusion is in teaching. It's confusing. Students who are new to electricity almost universally hate this, and in some cases it can cause misunderstanding, miscommunications, etc. There is a genuine cost to this mislabeling, and there would have been effectively no cost if electrons' charge was considered positive instead of negative.

As I said, I do agree that in practice, with all the existing knowledge, writings and technologies that all agree that electrons are negative, it would be a global disaster if the labeling was switched. There's no question about it. But I kind of disagree about "null change", it's true that it wouldn't change what we can create or (almost) any of our equations, but it absolutely would make it easier to teach it to future generations.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 days ago

My electronics teacher weathered it pretty well.

This is a basic circuit. These are how the electric and magnetic fields work. Oh and Franklin fucked up a long time ago, made a guess, and he guessed wrong. So, realistically, electrons flow from negative to positive, and the holes they leave behind flow from positive to negative. (he had already covered PN junctions so it scanned) It doesn't change the math or anything, just know that electron flow is negative to positive and that's the last you'll hear of it. And we all said that's dumb. And now, in my life, this is like the 5rd time I've talked about it since I learned it in 1992.

[-] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

They don't have to remake the textbooks in some cases - I've seen electronics (college) textbooks that were printed in 2 different versions for Electron Flow and Hole Flow.

[-] xthexder@l.sw0.com 51 points 6 days ago

Most circuit diagrams do not draw current flowing in any direction at all. It's just labeled + and -. I don't see anything wrong with this.

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Eh, i've struggled with this for years but eventually found my peace.

You see, there's two types of electric current: Electrons moving through a wire, and protons moving through water (the second one is also called a pH gradient, it happens e.g. in cell membranes of chloroplasts, fascinating stuff, check it out).

Basically plants do photosynthesis, which is extremely similar to what solar panels do. They generate an electric current, and in that current, positive charges move, so the "direction of current flow" is the correct one.

I have come to accept that the current inside living beings is more important than the current in all the machinery, because without life there would be no machinery, so life deserves to get the "correct" current.

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

This is such a good view of it that it also makes the professors I had that make the joke about it going backwards seem silly.

A lot of the old experiments on electricity were done with like paper dipped in salt water so of course physicists would lean towards defining it this way.

[-] Riverside@reddthat.com 8 points 5 days ago

Currents aren't drawn incorrectly. Electrons do move backwards, but since their electric charge is negative, the current goes the correct way.

[-] nomen_dubium@startrek.website 13 points 6 days ago

feels like this should be a skeletor quote!

[-] suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Current is defined as the flow of positive charge. The fact that electrons, which are negatively charged, actually flow the opposite direction is irrelevant. The diagrams are still correct per the definition of current.

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[-] DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I prefer a version of that meme with She-Ra in the photo

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this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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