Most circuit diagrams do not draw current flowing in any direction at all. It's just labeled + and -. I don't see anything wrong with this.
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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Logically the switch comes before the bulb.
That depends, do you want high or a low side switch? There are valid reasons for either depending on what you’re doing.
But the current doesn't care
The switch comes before the bulb
feels like this should be a skeletor quote!
IMHO Franklin is one of the few who would go straight to "what is it?" without blinking.
Turns out Benjamin Franklin had it right, and it was this time traveler that caused him to flip it to the wrong direction.
While funny, this doesn't work because the time traveler told him specifically which one is negative.
Damn time travelers, ~~always~~ ~~never~~ messing things up!
Man, this one is a good one.
Always love their comics but since I don't know crap about this stuff it's amusing to see how this one is relevant to a meme. Wish I knew more but only so much I've learned so far. One day perhaps but not today.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
The contributors on this site do an excellent job explaining the comics. Not really ELI5, but more ELI15.
It's okay to not understand every comic, someone else out there figured it out and explained it to us.
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OMG-O-S-H every circuit designed with conventional current just exploded because of your revelation here.
/s
My friend, this is the same branch of science that got us to space with calculations assuming spherical cows.
While we're at it, is a compass needle's North pole actually a South so that it points North? Or is the Earth's North pole actually South so that the needle's North pole points to it?
(I know that I could look this up, I just want to confuse people.)
We decided on North long before we discovered magnetism. But the magnet poles of the earth flip from time to time so ehhh.
But that's by design, while this is a convention problem
The current does flow from positive to negative. Electricity is not the flow of electrons - they just generate the field that the electric wave flows through. The electrons don't actually move very far. The wave flows outside of the wire, not in it.
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You just have to ignore the existence of electron flow. Conventional current flow is all that matters, and the only people who use electron flow are those who design integrated circuits and lunatics
Are you implying there there are IC designers who aren’t lunatics?
You forgot science enthusiasts who are desperately trying to impress people.
They get lumped in with the lunatics
We don't want 'em.
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You mean to tell me that there are people out there whose job it is to design lunatics?
That's fucking awesome. Like a real-life comic book author.
Let's eat grandma
You just have to ignore the existence of electron flow.
And ignore magnetic fields completely?
It's also useful to think of the "ground" plane as a sort of well of potential charger carriers that the conventional current model overlooks. Aside from simultaneously visualising what's happening inside simple ICs like BJTs / MOSFETs and the circuit diagrams I've found it a useful way for checking for common mode noise in circuit and PCB design.
I guess this makes me a lunatic? Don't know until we test it;
Someone give me an ~~asylum~~ makerspace to takeover!
It's also useful to think of the "ground" plane as a sort of well of potential charger carriers
I...think I understand ground loops (audio) now.
And that’s why we have positrons instead of the much-cooler-sounding negatrons.
Man, they have positrons and negatrons now? The Transformers franchise is wild.
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"all models are wrong, but some are useful"
Couldn't you fix this by also defining electrons as positive? Imo the physicists and electrical engineers should fight it out.
All words are just made up.
The physicists are absolutely right. However, I reject their reality and substitute my own
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But then I get to talk about all those holes flowing.
Uhhhh......pornhub is that way ----->
I'm sure someone has uploaded some current diagrams...
Wait, no, but first, imagine marbles in a straw!
Pornhub is that way ----->
Imagine a chain getting tugged back and forth
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