I have been reading an excellent book on "Teach Yourself Electronics," and it really is amazing! It finally answers a lot of those granular details about physics that I've been missing. My brain is so detail oriented, however, that I end up getting really bogged down in very pedantic detail. If I do not 110% understand something, I have the hardest time just "moving on" and hoping to figure it out later. It is a personality trait that I've battled my entire life, but one that severs me quite well in the end; once I know something... I really know it!
Can someone help me understand the following conceptual problem I'm having?
If you are designing a DC power supply or even just a basic lightbulb circuit... let's say you have a transformer that takes in the 120V AC from the wall, and reduces that voltage down to 18V AC (just as an example), and then the 18V AC needs to go through rectification to convert it to DC. When the electrons that are coming through the wire from the secondary windings of the transformer arrive at where the wire is connected to the rectifier diodes, how do the electrons know which way to flow? I've included a schematic that I've drawn up to illustrate what I'm talking about.
IMG URL: https://dolmetscher007.imgbb.com/
I know that electrons can only flow in one direction through a diode, which is why they are used for converting AC into DC, but even if we removed the diodes from the equation, and just replaced them with 1k resistors... do the electrons divide up like a line of ants that fork into two lines of ants? If so, do they fork evenly, or according to something placed further on down the line? Or do they not fork at all, and they always flow in whatever direction poses the least resistance? I know that there is a problem in that electrons flow from negative to positive, but convention has us writing it the other way around. But... for my current question, I don't think it matters which way the electrons are actually flowing when electrons reach a "crossroads" how do they know which way to go? Is the secret to understanding it, that electrons are not being "pushed" but that they are being "pulled", so the "path" they take is dictated by the negative terminal of the... what?... the power source? Ground?
Basically... I am trying to "read" schematics, but I seem to be missing something very fundamental about electron flow.
Can someone help me understand the following conceptual problem I'm having?
If you are designing a DC power supply or even just a basic lightbulb circuit... let's say you have a transformer that takes in the 120V AC from the wall, and reduces that voltage down to 18V AC (just as an example), and then the 18V AC needs to go through rectification to convert it to DC. When the electrons that are coming through the wire from the secondary windings of the transformer arrive at where the wire is connected to the rectifier diodes, how do the electrons know which way to flow? I've included a schematic that I've drawn up to illustrate what I'm talking about.
IMG URL: https://dolmetscher007.imgbb.com/
I know that electrons can only flow in one direction through a diode, which is why they are used for converting AC into DC, but even if we removed the diodes from the equation, and just replaced them with 1k resistors... do the electrons divide up like a line of ants that fork into two lines of ants? If so, do they fork evenly, or according to something placed further on down the line? Or do they not fork at all, and they always flow in whatever direction poses the least resistance? I know that there is a problem in that electrons flow from negative to positive, but convention has us writing it the other way around. But... for my current question, I don't think it matters which way the electrons are actually flowing when electrons reach a "crossroads" how do they know which way to go? Is the secret to understanding it, that electrons are not being "pushed" but that they are being "pulled", so the "path" they take is dictated by the negative terminal of the... what?... the power source? Ground?
Basically... I am trying to "read" schematics, but I seem to be missing something very fundamental about electron flow.