Determine the direction of the conventional current.

The conventional current flows from the positive terminal to the negative terminal of a battery or power source through an external circuit.

What is Conventional Current?

When electricity was first studied, scientists assumed current flowed from positive to negative. This was accepted as the standard convention, even though later discoveries showed that electrons actually flow in the opposite direction.

• Conventional Current: Positive → Negative
• Electron Flow: Negative → Positive
• Both describe the same circuit behavior but in opposite directions.

Visual Example

In a battery:

• The positive terminal is marked with a plus sign (+).
• The negative terminal is marked with a minus sign (-).
• Conventional current is shown flowing out from + and back into -.