Conventional and electronic currents (Beginners guide, 2024)

Two conventions are commonly used to describe the direction of electric current in electronic circuits: conventional and electronic currents.

Conventional current is the current’s direction from the voltage source’s positive terminal to the negative terminal. On the other hand, the electronic current flows from the negative (-) terminal to the positive (+) terminal. There is always a debate about the correct direction of the current. Some people consider conventional current and some people consider electronic current.

In this article, we’ll explain the difference between both current types, and their history for your better understanding.

Table of Contents

Conventional and electronic current

The flow of charge particles is called current. Current is also defined as the rate of flow charges in a conducting medium per unit of time. This flow of charges can be negative or positive.

Based on this, the current is divided into two types, conventional current and electronic current.

There is little history behind conventional current. In 1746, Benjamin Franklin was experimenting with the aspect of electricity.

He conducted the well-known kite experiment in 1752 to demonstrate that lightning is a type of electricity by storing electrical charge in a Leyden jar, which was an early type of electrical charge storage device.

When Benjamin Franklin was performing this experiment at that time the modern atomic model with electron and proton were not discovered. So he assumed that the electricity flow from positive to negative.

So this outcome of the experiment was accepted and became conventional.

1. Conventional current

The concept of conventional current comes from Benjamin Franklin’s experiment.

We can define conventional current:

The production of current due to the flow of positive charges is called conventional current.

So it is the type of current that flows from positive to negative terminals of the voltage source (battery).

In conventional current the positive is considered as an excess of charges and the negative is considered as a deficiency of charges. This is due to the Franklin assumption.

By considering the above circuit a battery is connected across a conductor. The electric charges pass from the positive terminal to the negative terminal of the battery.

The positive terminal has an excess of charges or a high potential and the negative terminal has a deficiency of charges or has a lower potential so the positive charges are attracted to negative charges.

This is a conventional current and it is widely used by engineers all over the world.

Now let’s see what is electronic current.

2. Electronic current

The flow of charges from the negative terminal of the power source to the positive terminal is called electronic current.

It is defined as,

The current due to the flow of negatively charged electrons is called electronic current.

This is due to the flow of negatively charged electrons that’s why it is called electronic current.

A battery is connected across a conductor. The charges are now flowing from the negative terminal of the battery to the positive terminal of the battery.

In electronic current, high electron density can be found at the battery’s negative end. This electron moves from the battery’s negative terminal, where electron densities are high, to the positive terminal, where densities are low, and as a result, it is attracted towards the positive terminal.

So this is electronic current.

In reality the current flows from the negative to the positive terminal of the voltage source. If you are solving an electronic circuit, the direction of the current you take solely depends upon you.

In most electronic textbooks the conventional current is considered.

Conventional current vs. electron current

Let’s discuss some points that make both current concepts different.

Conventional current	Electronic current
The flow of positive charges is called conventional current.	The flow of negative charges is called electronic current.
In conventional current charges flow from the positive terminal to the negative terminal of the battery.	In electronic current charges flow from the negative terminal to the positive terminal of the battery.
The positive terminal has a high density of positive charges compared to the negative terminal, which is why they flow.	In electronic current, the negative terminal of the battery has a high density of electrons as compared to the positive terminal.
The direction of the current is considered conventional, it is technically wrong.	This is the real direction of current flow and it is technically correct.
The direction of the conventional current is assigned at the discovery of electricity.	After the discovery of electricity, the direction of the electronic current is assigned.
Based on conventional current, the symbols and direction of various electrical and electronic components were designed.	While using electronic current the direction of many rules will be changed such as the right-hand and left-hand rules.
This convention is used in the old books of electrical and electronics engineering.	This concept is used in the literature of electrical and electronics engineering.

Why use conventional instead of electron current?

In most of the literature, it is mentioned at the start if they consider conventional or electronic current. Conventional current is considered as standard for solving electrical circuits.

Let’s discuss why they consider conventional current not electronic current.

Electricity was discovered before the discovery of electrons. It was considered that flow is due to the positively charged particles and it flows from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative terminal.

However, after the discovery of the modern atomic model, it was discovered that there are negatively charged particles called electrons.

So it was discovered that practically the current is the flow of electrons and it flows from the negative to the positive terminal of the battery.

The majority of laws, rules, and formulas were established based on conventional current. So if it were to change at that time that would confuse the new students.

Rules like left-hand and right-hand are based on conventional current.

The current direction doesn’t affect the properties of the circuit so the conventional current is considered as standard direction.

Conclusion

Current is of two types conventional current and electronic current. The conventional current is the flow of positively charged particles and electronic current is the flow of negatively charged particles.

In conventional current, the positive terminal of the battery has a high quantity of positive charges so it flows from the positive to the negative terminal.

The negative terminal has a high quantity of negative charges to attract positive charges and in this way, electronic current is produced. The electronic current is due to electrons as the name suggests.

Electronic current is considered the right direction of current but the majority of laws and rules were established based on conventional current so changing it, was causing a lot of confusion among the students.

As the property of the circuit was not changing if we consider conventional or electronic current the conventional current is taken as the standard direction.

So this was all about conventional and electronic current and I hope now you will not get confused when you hear about it.