It's generally believed that the direction of electric current is merely a matter of convention and that there is no specific significance to the direction of electron flow in a metal conducting wire. However, in cross-country overhead power cables, the energy is all flowing in one direction, from the power station to the users. This is despite the belief that, being AC, the electrons are swishing cyclically to-and-fro. In laboratory electric circuits, the direction of the actual energy flow is seldom, if ever, significant, but it becomes significant when electric energy is being transmitted across long distances. The conclusion is that there must be an undercurrent involved, more fundamental than the flow of ions, which has an absolute direction and which doesn't reverse in an AC circuit.
Mustafa Ali Khan-Hussaini, Remember, in an electrolyte, positively charged ions flow one way while negatively charged ions flow the other way. Hence we have to rule out charged particles altogether as being the primary essence of electric current. They are clearly only either an effect of electric current or a facilitator. There must be a more fundamental unidirectional undercurrent driving it all, and that includes generating the surrounding magnetic field. We are likely looking at hydrodynamics and the generation of vortex rings.
The question being asked here is with respect to why AC generators only send out energy in one direction when we are being taught that the direction of electric current is down to convention. Yet the direction is very obviously an absolute physical reality.
Emmanouil and Mustafa, OK, so in an electrolyte where electric current is flowing, the anions flow in one direction and the cations flow in the opposite direction. Which way does the energy flow?
Mustafa, The question is in essence,
"Does electric current have an absolute physical direction? And if so, is this the direction of conventional current or of electron current?"
That's the question that I'm hoping someone will answer.
Mustafa, Well it will be interesting to see if anybody can come up with an answer. It might be difficult though, because in cross-country power cables we are normally dealing with 50 or 60 Hertz AC. So, if energy only propagates down a given wire in pulses, every half-cycle, it will be very hard to determine if the energy pulses are in phase with the electron flow or the conventional current.
But surely many people must have realized that something is amiss in the teaching, in that AC is a to-and-fro affair, yet energy still propagates in only one direction. I believe that there is a more fundamental uni-directional undercurrent involved, and that this is the joker in the pack.
Here is an attempt to explain how the energy can propagate in a specific direction while the current itself oscillates to-and-fro. It involves combining a linear motion with a circulatory motion across two wires,
Article The Absolute Direction of Alternating Current
Mohan Lal, But during the backwash half-cycle in AC current, the energy from the power station doesn't get drawn back in again. The energy only flows in one direction. That's the issue that is discussed here,
Article The Absolute Direction of Alternating Current
The conventional direction of an electric current is the direction in which a positive charge would move. Henceforth, the current flowing in the external circuit is directed away from the positive terminal and toward the negative terminal of the battery
The direction of an electric current is by convention the direction in which a positive charge would move. Thus, the current in the external circuit is directed away from the positive terminal and toward the negative terminal of the battery.
The conventional current in any electrical circuit follows a direction which is assumed to be carried by positive charge carriers. This means that these charges flow from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative terminal. The positive terminal of the battery, the long terminal, is pointing down. Hence, the positive charges flow counterclockwise,
@Chuck A Arize, In an electrolyte where the positive ions are flowing in one direction and the negative ions are flowing in the opposite direction, what direction is the energy flowing in?
Farah Sameer , In an electrolyte where the positive ions are flowing in one direction and the negative ions are flowing in the opposite direction, what direction is the energy flowing in?
Electric energy flows wherever electric and magnetic fields are located together and fluctuates in the same place. The simplest example is electrical circuits
Farah Sameer , The question was, if we have a current flowing through an electrolyte, what direction is the energy flowing in?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Phytochemistry
- Extracts