Basic Electrical Theory

[His Dudeness]

Holy crap !!


I just imagined millions of these tiny little electricity gremlins running from the plus terminal on my battery, through my wiring, round to the negative one. If there's a break, or a missing connection in the wires, then the gremlins can't make it.


The wiring diagram is the road atlas the gremlins use to find their way around my bike, to each of the electrical components.


I don't know where the gremlins come from, or what they eat, but I'm happy they're there 


Seriously though, it'll be nice to get to the science behind all of this - so thanks for the info  :thumbup

No problem Not meaning to confuse the issue but the gremlins actually go from the negative to positive. What??  :eek If you watch those videos or read the website they all explain it as going from negative to positive because that's what happens. Remember electricity is all about the flow of electrons and electrons have a negative charge. It's the electrons that are moving through the circuit so its negative charge that is moving from the negative terminal of the battery, where there's a surplus of electrons, to the positive terminal where there's a lack of electrons. That's what is really happening in a circuit and it's called Electron Flow Current. Negative to positive.

However when electricity was first being developed they didn't know about atoms or electrons and they guessed that current was positive charges flowing through the circuit, from the positive terminal to the negative terminal. That is called Conventional Current flow. They went so long thinking Conventional Current Flow was right that when they discovered it wasn't they decided it was too much trouble to change all the schematics and wiring diagrams so they left them as Conventional Current Flow. From positive to negative and really it doesn't matter what way you represent the flow of current as long as you're consistent in the direction you do it. It does make it confusing when you start learning about it though! All the books explain it as going from negative to positive and all the schematics show going from positive to negative :\

If you're trying to read a wiring diagram or fix a bike you use Conventional Current Flow because that's how the wiring diagrams are drawn but if you're try to get your head around the theory it'll mostly be in Electron Flow current. :lol
There's the explanation of Conventional Current Flow and Electron Current Flow https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textboo...tron-flow/