Now everyone will rightly tell me that the protons within wires cannot flow,
while the electrons can. Yes, this is true... but only in metals.
And it's only true for solid metals.
All metals are composed of positively charged atoms immersed in a sea of
movable electrons. When an electric current is created within a
solid copper wire, the "electron sea" moves forward, but the protons within
the positive atoms of copper do not.
However, SOLID METALS ARE NOT THE ONLY CONDUCTORS,
and in many other substances the positive atoms *do* move,
and they *do* participate in the electric current.
These various conductors are nothing exotic.
They are all around us, as close to us as they can possibly be.
A battery or Waterfuelcell is an "ionic" or "non electron" type conductor.
What is "non electron flow"?
The electric charges in a waterfuelcell are entirely composed of positive and negative
charged atoms or "ions." During electrolysis, it was these charged atoms which flowed
along as an electric current. The electric current was a flow of positive potassium atoms,
negative chlorine, and numerous other more complex positive and negative molecules.
During the electric current, the positive atoms flowed in one direction, while
the negative atoms simultaneously flowed in the other. Imagine the flows as being
like crowds of of tiny moving dots, with half the dots going in one direction and half
in the other. The crowds of little dots move through each other without any dots colliding.
The postive atoms behave like a proton, but a proton with an entire atom attached.
The negative atoms behave like electrons which are dragging an entire atom along with them.
So, inside a waterfuelcell, which direction did the electric current REALLY go?
Do we follow the negative particles and ignore the positive ones? Or vice versa,
following the negatives? There is a simple answer, but first...
When you connect a lightbulb to a battery, you form a complete circuit, and the path
of the flowing charge is through the inside of the battery, as well as through the
light bulb filament. Battery electrolyte is very conductive. Down inside the battery,
within the wet chemicals between the plates, the amperes of flashlight current appears
as a flow of both positive and negative atoms. There is a powerful flow of electric charge
going through the battery, yet no individual electrons flow through the battery at all.
So, while the current is between the two plates of the battery, what's its real direction?
Not right to left, not left to right, but in both directions at once.
About half of the charge-flow is composed of positive atoms, and the remaining portion is
composed of negative atoms flowing backwards.
Of course in metal wires outside the battery, the real particle flow is only from negative
to positive. But inside the battery's wet electrolyte or in a waterfuelcell's electrolyte, the charge-flow goes in two opposite
directions at the same time.
(And if we built a circuit from hoses full of salt water,
with no metal conductors used, then all the current would be bi-directional.)
