How can electrons (with a negative charge) be the particles in electricity?

Question

maybe i dont understand what a negative charge is

Answer 1

I think you have misunderstood the concept of a negative charge. A negative charge does not mean that the particle has negative energy. The terms "positive" and "negative" are used to explain charges simply because they are opposites. The term negative is just a matter of convention. We could have, for example, said that electrons had a "left" charge and that protons have a "right" charge because this is where their charges fall on the number line. (The charge of an electron is to the left of zero, whereas the charge of a proton is to the right of zero.) Conversely, we could have said that electrons have a positive charge and protons a negative charge, and it would not change any of the math. We only use positive and negative to explain that the charges oppose each other, and that if you have a system with one electron and one proton (i.e. a Hydrogen atom) the charge of the entire atom would be neutral.

Answer 2

The reason is kind of historical. It was thought that there are two kinds of charges. When you rub a metal ball with silk it gets positively charged according to their imagination. Granted that, if you now bring an electron to that positively charged metal ball, what would be the result? So then you say electrons are negatively charged. In fact electrons are not the only particles of electricity, any ion movement can give rise to electricity. In semiconductors both electrons and holes (thought as positively charged) are particles of electricity (holes are not actually particles, though). But anyway originally electrons are the particle which carries elctricity.

Answer 3

First there is 2 types of electric currents which are electrons & holes, but electrons current is the most common, because electrons have a larger mobility than holes .
According to the atomic stucture, the atom is composed of a nucleus which has a positive charge and electrons which have a negative charge and exist in certain stable circular orbits about the necleus, these electrons may shift to an orbit of higher or lower energy, thereby gaining or losing energy equal to the difference in the energy levels.
As the electrons go to a higher energy levels they are considered as free electrons , and if they have a conduction path they will participate in current.

Answer 4

It is true that generally it is electrons that make it out for what we call electricity, meaning that when a current is running through a wire, it's electrons that is moving around.

The fact that we've assigned electrons with a negative charge does also mean, that even though a current runs from + to -, electrons actually go the opposite way!

Answer 5

Electrons & protons have opposite charges. It is only an scientific convention that assigns a negative charge to the electron and positive to the proton. Protons are much more massive than electrons and so the much lighter electron are free to move about and conduct electricity.

Answer 6

Electrons repel each other and protons repel each other. Electrons and protons attract each other. Because electrons weigh far less than protons and are losely held in orbits about atoms (such as copper or silver) they can readily be used to produce electric currents. Protons exist mainly within the nuclei of atoms and are not readily available to produce current. Electric current can be established when a device (generator or battery, etc,) pushes electrons into one end of a wire (circuit) which causes electrons to push (repel) each other all along the wire until some are pushed out of the wire back into the originating device. The push or pressure is called voltage and high voltage is capable of doing work in a motor or generating heat in a heating element or light in the hot filament of a light bulb.