Define Potential difference What is Conventional Current-02074
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Potential difference
The potential difference is defined as the amount of work per charge needed to move electric charge from the second point to the first, or equivalently, the amount of work that unit charge flowing from the first point to the second can perform. In the SI system of units, potential difference, electrical potential and electromotive force are measured in volts, leading to the commonly used term voltage and the symbol V.
--OR--Current flowing in a conductor is due to a potential difference between its ends. Electrons move from a point of less positive potential to more positive potential and the current flows in the opposite direction. The SI unit of potential difference is the volt (V). Volts are the measure of Potential Difference across circuit elements (battery, resistor etc.).
Conventional Current
The motion of positive charge, in the opposite direction from electron flow, is considered as conventional current. Electricity was known of long before Benjamin Franklin. It was not understood very well, but it was known of. Scientists knew there were two kinds of electric charge. They knew there was electric current. Scientists believed that the opposite charges moved similarly in opposite directions. They defined one as positive and one as negative. They defined current to be in the direction of the positive charges. Later, they learned of their mistake.
Only the negative charges move freely in conductors. Electrons had been defined as the negative charges. Current had been defined "backwards". It was too late to redefine all of electrical physics, so the inconvenience holds to this day. The direction that the electrons move is opposite the direction that current points. Because of how electricity works, it isn't much of a problem. Negative charge moving to the left through a wire has the same effect as positive charge moving to the right. So long as the total charge in the wire (protons and electrons) remains balanced, no trouble occurs.
