Which way does electricity flow?

Does it come from the negative terminal of a battery, or the positive terminal?

Comments

[Brennn10]

On a battery, electricity flows from the positive terminal to the negative terminal. However, electrons flow from negative to positive.

[PKTraceur]

So, if I were to put an LED down, I would do it like so, Bat.pos

[PKTraceur]

Or with a switch, Batpos

[comodore]

The long end of the LED goes to positive and the short end of the LED goes to the negative, if you were just to connect 1 LED. When talking about DC( Direct Current) the electricity flows from the positive (+) to the negative (-) side, like Brenn10 sad... When you are talking about AC (Alternating Current) the electricity flows back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and .... You get the point.... :D

[SpaceShipOne]

Current is usually drawn in the direction of the flow of "positive" charges, from + to -. In reality, the positive charges cannot move, and the only motion is from the electrons.

[tgwinn]

Battery Positive goes to LED positive. The LED "positive" end is called that because it is meant to be hooked up to a positive potential; i.e., the "positive end" of the battery.

[92191329]

it can flow from any terminal to any. u can try checking by keeping three batteries in a series form an the fourth battery upside down. the bulb will glow

[Easymac79]

If AC flows back and forth, then how can they measure it in a power meter? If the ground actually supplies the power 30 times per second, how can it be called neutral? and how do surge protectors redirect the excess electricity to the ground if the ground is charged as well?

[lanwantek]

Electricity only flows from negative to positive. Electricity is the flow of electrons,so the flow of electricity and flow of electrons are the same thing. The confusion stems from Benjamin Franklins' experiments. He had no way to determine which of the charged rods was the source of electrons and guessed wrong when he assigned the terms "Negative" and "Positive". He intended to use positive for the source (electrons) and negative for the absence of electrons. In the early 1900s scientists were able to weigh the charged rods from Franklins' experiments with enough precision to determine that the "negative" rod was actually the source because it weighed more after being charged than before. The "positive" rod weighed less after charging than before.

[eranox]

It is a common misconception that the terminals on a DC power source were designed so that electricity would flow from positive to negative. It seems intuitive, since positive, marked +, seems to indicate a surplus, and we think of negative (-) as subtracting and taking away. In reality, the cathode/negative terminal of a battery is labeled thusly because it contains an excess of electrons, which are negatively charged. The electrons flow toward the positively charged anode/positive terminal. You know this, of course; my point is only that the terminals are not accidentally labeled backwards. It was never intended that electricity would flow from positive to negative.

[MairseyDotes]

DC "flows" from negative to positive (that is, the electrons move in that direction). AC reverses direction in a cyclic manner; that is, a 50Hz AC line reverses direction 50 times per second, 60Hz reverses 60 times per second, 400Hz reverse 400 times per second, and so on. That's why "Hertz" used to be called "cycles per second."