Electron Versus Conventional Flow
Discrete Semiconductor Devices and Circuits
Two people are debating electron flow versus conventional flow. One of them says that the you will get different results predicting polarity of voltage drops in a resistive circuit depending on which convention you use. The other person says the convention for labeling current does not matter at all, and that the correct polarities will be predicted either way.
Which of these two people is correct? Explain why, and give an example to prove your point.
A Cathode Ray Tube, or CRT, is the heart of an analog oscilloscope. It functions by aiming a focused beam of electrons at a phosphorescent screen, causing light at the point of impact:
What style of current notation (electron or conventional) would best suit a description for the operation of a CRT?
In the following graphic, you will see the directions of currents labeled with arrows for each semiconductor component. Some of these arrows are pointing in the direction of conventional flow, while others are pointing in the direction of electron flow. Determine which convention is being used to label currents for each component (note: I have only used one convention for each component - I have not mixed conventional and electron flow while labeling multiple currents on the same component!).
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