Is current the flow of electrons?

Question

If electrons flow to form - to + and current flows from + to - then how can they be the same?

Can someone please explain? Thanks.

Answer 1

The IEEE standard convention for forward current is the flow of electricity from a higher to lower potential (voltage). The physical flow of electrons, then, is always in the opposite direction of current.
It's just a convention standard. You can say it's the opposite if you want, and as long as you're consistent, you'll always end up with the same answers.

Answer 2

They're different ways of describing the same thing. What we call "conventional current flow" is just us looking at the picture backwards. In the early days of electricity the electron hadn't even been discovered. The scientists believed current really did flow from plus to minus. Once physicists came to understand about electron flow an entire industry already existed seeing things backwards. Rather than try to re-educate everybody it was decided to call what people already "knew" conventional current flow. Scientists who needed a really accurate picture deal with electron flow. For most of the rest of us it doesn't really matter.

Answer 3

When electrical physics was developed, the convention for current flow turned out to be the opposite of electron flow, and it has stayed that way.

Answer 4

because the direction of flow of electrons are opposite to that of current

Answer 5

it is the flow rate of electrons