Bill Turner wrote:
On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 18:37:01 +0100, "Ian White, G3SEK"
wrote:

"Don't worry, you'll learn to cope with it" - and so we did.

_________________________________________________ ________

I am mildly curious how long this error will be propagated. Surely it
will still be around after I'm gone, but will engineers five hundred or
a thousand years still be defying logic?


Faraday established the convention that "current" flows from "positive"
to "negative" in 1834.

Thomson discovered the electron in 1897, and found it had a negative
charge.

But even then, it was already far too late to think about changing the
convention about "current". Scientists who had to work with electrons
would have to learn to live with it.

And if it was already too late in 1897...

Not a big deal, but it is fascinating to me how nobody will take the
bull by the horns and fix it.

There really ain't much that's needful of fixin'. Electrical engineering
was growing and thriving before electrons were discovered, and a century
later, everything still works. Even "electronics" hardly ever has to
think about electrons, or the sign of their charge. We're doing just
fine, thank you.

It's an untidy world, Bill. Please get over it... soon :-)



--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

I think the question is why should engineers, who have designed
everything from communications satellites to cell phones to the computer
you're using, your ham radio rig, and countless other things over the
past couple of hundred years, change their methods? Because Bill isn't
able -- or willing -- to understand the difference between charge and
electrons?

Sorry, you haven't managed to convince even one engineer, and you've got
millions to go. Good luck.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Bill Turner wrote:
On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 09:04:30 +0100, "Ian White, G3SEK"
wrote:


It's an untidy world, Bill. Please get over it... soon :-)


__________________________________________________ _______

When I was a little boy, that argument would not have worked with mom.
I still had to clean my room.

If only mom had been an electrical engineer... "Gosh mom, my room has
always been like this. Why change things now?"

:-)

--
Bill W6WRT

"Bill Turner" wrote in message
...
Where I draw the line is those few engineers - and I've met some - who
believe that current really, really does flow from plus to minus, and
it's a *real* flow, not just some mathematical concept.

Hole flow in semiconductor devices, which represents a positive charge
current, and certainly can be from 'plus to minus,' is arguably 'real.'

I would agree with you that anyone who seriously misunderstands any of this
and claims to be a practicing electrical engineer should be viewed with a
little skepticism. :-) If you're working with numerous such individuals, it
might be time to look for other jobs...