By convention, we point the current arrow in the direction positive charge moves (or would move if it could) and define that as the direction of positive current. That means electrons—with their negative charge—move in the opposite direction of the current arrow. This definition may seem odd, but I promise you will get used to it after a little while.

Note to veterans of the Military: Some electronic training programs (for example the U.S. Navy NEETS program in the 1960s) use the opposite convention for current, defining current to flow in the direction of electron motion. If you have this convention in your head it’s challenging to follow along with the discussion here at Spinning Numbers. We follow the widely used SI convention for current direction.

Created by Willy McAllister.