Electrons flowing through circuits come from batteries
Keith S. Taber
Bill was a participant in the Understanding Science Project. I was asking him about topics he had studied in science, and I asked about electricity:
…have you done any work on electricity?
Erm, yes, I've done a bit.
Do you remember any of that?
Er we had to use symbols to draw circuits, and then we got to make those circuits.
Ah, so you remember doing the symbols, and you remember making up the circuits?
Yeah.
That's good. So what exactly is electricity?
It's made up of electrons which, erm, flow through wires, and into light bulbs to light them up. And they come from batteries.
Electrons do?
Yeah.
So what are electrons?
Erm {pause, c.4s} really don't know.
Bill here demonstrates a common alternative conception that in a circuit the battery, or other power supply, provides the electrons that flow, rather than providing a the electric field which acts on the electrons already present in the conducting path (e.g., in the wires).
