# POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ELECTRICITY

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-and-negative-electricity/41771>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 18, 2000, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-and-negative-electricity/41771 "2000-11-18T20:04:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![don\_willard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@don\_willard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_willard)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-and-negative-electricity/41771/1 "2000-11-18T20:04:07Z")

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I heard that the negative current in electric wires is actually positive because somebody made a mistake long ago and they just continue the convention. What gives? In addition, would positrons be flowing in copper wires, etc. in Anti-World? And when a current flows in a wire, does this mean electrons actually move out of their planetary orbits from one copper atom and move to the next one, bouncing it into the next one, and so forth? Or are the electrons in conductors loose anyway, somehow? Bewildered.

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**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-and-negative-electricity/41771/2 "2000-11-18T20:58:01Z")

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[This page](http://www.amasci.com/amateur/elecdir.html) will answer most of the questions you posed.

For further reading [go here](http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/ele-edu.html)