Weird Science: Which Way Does Electricity Flow Through a Vehicle’s Electrical System?
Which way does electricity flow through a vehicle’s electrical system? From positive to negative, or from negative to positive? Depending on your viewpoint, it can flow either way.
When most people think about the electrical system on a tractor or truck, they envision a system where current flows from the positive terminal of a battery, through a load, then back to the battery’s negative terminal. This is known as conventional current flow (CCF.)
The concept of electron flow (EF) states the opposite, that power is created by the movement of electrons flowing from a battery’s negative terminal through the load and back to the battery’s positive post. Technically, atomically, this is what actually happens. Electrons flow from the negative post through a circuit to the positive post.
The concepts of CCF and EF are both scientifically arguable; they just describe the process in different ways. Things get complicated when reading schematic diagrams involving diodes and transistors that direct the flow of current. Most schematics are drawn following CCF theory.
In agriculture, CCF (the idea that current flows from positive to negative) works just fine for explaining and understanding how electrical systems work.
But if somebody wants to be ornery at the local coffee shop and insist that electrons flow from negative to positive — they aren’t scientifically wrong.
