Hacker News Reader

Because what we call electricity is electrons moving. So it would make sense for electrons to have the electric charge.

Now we are in a weird situation where current flows from positive to negative, but electrons flow from negative to positive. It would be a lot more logical if the direction of the electrons was the direction of the current, but the name was arbitrarily decided before we knew what electrons were.

View on HN

This seems to warrant an appreciation for the nuances of the electromagnetic field, electric potential, and that electron drift in a conductor isn't really the same as varying potentials in the electromagnetic field.

Electricity is generally defined as a flow of electrical charge(s). Nobody except scientists care to know which way the electrons went because we never run out of them.

Chemists building batteries might disagree with you. They have to understand which direction the electrons flow and which elements they are using have the free electrons to spare.

By definition, chemists are scientists.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com