# What is Electric Field Direction Impact on Electrons in closed Circuit ?

#### maverick_spear

Joined Aug 16, 2017
10
Hi,

Correct me If I am wrong, When the battery is connected with the conductor. Difference of potential is created due to battery (As positive charges on one side and more negative charges on the other side). This difference of potential created the electric field between the two connectors of the battery as the electric field is defined as the influence of charge around it, so difference of charge creates the influence which cause the electron to move from negative terminal of the battery to the positive terminal of the battery.

My Question is that what is the significance of the Electric field direction in the closed circuit. The direction is mentioned as positive to negative and electrons move in opposite of the electric field. What is the direction significance in this ?

#### bushrat

Joined Nov 29, 2014
209
Not sure if I understand your question correctly, but some components will not work (or be damaged) if the flow of electrons is reversed. For example, mosfets, LED's, things like that..

#### maverick_spear

Joined Aug 16, 2017
10
Not sure if I understand your question correctly, but some components will not work (or be damaged) if the flow of electrons is reversed. For example, mosfets, LED's, things like that..

Hi, hope you are doing good, my question is particularly related to significance of Electric field direction. Is this direction has no impact on electrons in closed circuit and if yes then is this only for theoretical purposes. If this direction has an impact then I dont understand how can I see this impact because electric field create force of attraction for negative electrons and electrons move towards attraction on positive side but direction of electron is in opposite direction.

#### bushrat

Joined Nov 29, 2014
209
Hi, hope you are doing good, my question is particularly related to significance of Electric field direction. Is this direction has no impact on electrons in closed circuit and if yes then is this only for theoretical purposes. If this direction has an impact then I dont understand how can I see this impact because electric field create force of attraction for negative electrons and electrons move towards attraction on positive side but direction of electron is in opposite direction.
Not sure if this is a typo, or language barrier, but I'm having hard time understanding your statement...

#### BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,938
The answer is yes....it makes a difference. But I believe the conventional way they teach + and - charge field lines..........is confusing you.

Or you are failing to understand that positive current/charge flow.....is only apparent or mathematical....it's not real....all current is actually negative charge flow.

#### maverick_spear

Joined Aug 16, 2017
10
The answer is yes....it makes a difference. But I believe the conventional way they teach + and - charge field lines..........is confusing you.

Or you are failing to understand that positive current/charge flow.....is only apparent or mathematical....it's not real....all current is actually negative charge flow.
So it means that the in real the electric field direction is negative to.positive

#### maverick_spear

Joined Aug 16, 2017
10
The answer is yes....it makes a difference. But I believe the conventional way they teach + and - charge field lines..........is confusing you.

Or you are failing to understand that positive current/charge flow.....is only apparent or mathematical....it's not real....all current is actually negative charge flow.
Perhaps Yes it might confusing me the electric field lines representation. So do you mean that the field lines which are represented conventional way are not the one actual is and if yes then what are actual representation of field lines of charges (+ and -). Are they opposite of conventional way. PLease can you give me some healthy article which can clear my confusion. Thanks

#### Janis59

Joined Aug 21, 2017
1,270
Just historically electricity flowing direction was identified wrong, but on that was based a left-hand law of magnetism, thus it was decided to not correct this mistake. However to change the left hand law to right hand law would not be so hard at all.

#### nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
8,028

#### BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,938
maverick spear......how old are you and where do you live. Are you in school and studying this....or are you just curious?

Voltage does not have a direction.......it has a polarity. Any electric field can move any charge. Different charge goes in different directions from the same field.

This is because that a charge can attract(pull) and it can repulse(push). A positive voltage will PUSH a positive charge. And it will PULL a negative charge.

A negative voltage will PUSH a negative charge....and will PULL a positive charge.

We think of the voltage POLARITY determining current/charge DIRECTION.

If you are going to school or reading from a recent textbook......you will learn positive current/charge flow. This and people describing circuits in this way is VERY confusing to new learners. Because in electronics....only negative charge flows.

It's like wearing a tee shirt inside out.........it works....even though it's wrong.

#### maverick_spear

Joined Aug 16, 2017
10
maverick spear......how old are you and where do you live. Are you in school and studying this....or are you just curious?

Voltage does not have a direction.......it has a polarity. Any electric field can move any charge. Different charge goes in different directions from the same field.

This is because that a charge can attract(pull) and it can repulse(push). A positive voltage will PUSH a positive charge. And it will PULL a negative charge.

A negative voltage will PUSH a negative charge....and will PULL a positive charge.

We think of the voltage POLARITY determining current/charge DIRECTION.

If you are going to school or reading from a recent textbook......you will learn positive current/charge flow. This and people describing circuits in this way is VERY confusing to new learners. Because in electronics....only negative charge flows.

It's like wearing a tee shirt inside out.........it works....even though it's wrong.
maverick spear......how old are you and where do you live. Are you in school and studying this....or are you just curious?

Voltage does not have a direction.......it has a polarity. Any electric field can move any charge. Different charge goes in different directions from the same field.

This is because that a charge can attract(pull) and it can repulse(push). A positive voltage will PUSH a positive charge. And it will PULL a negative charge.

A negative voltage will PUSH a negative charge....and will PULL a positive charge.

We think of the voltage POLARITY determining current/charge DIRECTION.

If you are going to school or reading from a recent textbook......you will learn positive current/charge flow. This and people describing circuits in this way is VERY confusing to new learners. Because in electronics....only negative charge flows.

It's like wearing a tee shirt inside out.........it works....even though it's wrong.
Dear I believe if someone has curosity we should respect that.

#### BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,938
Why would you think I don't? Curiosity is my real name.

No one has ever seen an electric field. You can not see the current flow. So we make up theories....that explain the measured relationship of experimental results.

We can use a mathematical model to explain this theories.

We can also use a physical model to explain these theories.

That's why I asked you questions. Do you want a mathematical explanation or a physical explanation?

Some people are only interested in the math. And that's fine....they may design.

But others are mechanical in nature.......and want a real physical movement to explain the process.

#### WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
26,398
Hi,

Correct me If I am wrong, When the battery is connected with the conductor. Difference of potential is created due to battery (As positive charges on one side and more negative charges on the other side). This difference of potential created the electric field between the two connectors of the battery as the electric field is defined as the influence of charge around it, so difference of charge creates the influence which cause the electron to move from negative terminal of the battery to the positive terminal of the battery.

My Question is that what is the significance of the Electric field direction in the closed circuit. The direction is mentioned as positive to negative and electrons move in opposite of the electric field. What is the direction significance in this ?
It will help to understand what an electric field is, from first principles.

Coulomb's Law says that the force that charge q1 exerts on charge q2 is proportional to the product of the magnitude of the two charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them and is in the direction of the vector from q1 to q2. Mathematically, this is

$${\vec{F}}_{12} \; = \; k_e \frac{q_1 \cdot q_2}{ {\|{\vec{r}}_{12} \|}^2} {\hat{r}}_{12}$$

Notice that we can remove the second charge from the equation and leave it as

$${\vec{F}}_{12} \; = \; k_e \frac{q_1}{ {\|{\vec{r}}_{12} \|}^2} {\hat{r}}_{12} \cdot q_2$$

Then we simply call the first part -- the part that does NOT depend in any way on q2 -- the "electric field" at the point where q2 is located.

$${\vec{E}}_{12} \; = \; k_e \frac{q_1}{ {\|{\vec{r}}_{12} \|}^2} {\hat{r}}_{12}$$

$${\vec{F}}_{12} \; = \; {\vec{E}}_{12} \cdot q_2$$

This is merely a definition that allows us to separate a property at a location in space as a function of all of the charges distributed elsewhere from the effect on a particular charge that might be located at that location.

That's all an electric field is. It's really that simple.

So if you have a bunch of positive charges located on the left and a bunch of negative charged located on the right, the electric field in the middle is oriented from left to right. If you place a positive charge in the middle, the force on it will be to the right. But if you place a negative charge in the middle, the force will be to the left because now the magnitude of the force is negative, but the force vector is to the right.