Thread: Protons and Electrons

I'm trying to understand why is that Electrons are considered negative and Protons considered positive? As much details as possible please.....

Sorry, there's no detail here. It's just a convention/tradition/definition.

Originally Posted by blacknamed

I'm trying to understand why is that Electrons are considered negative and Protons considered positive? As much details as possible please.....

Because of the way they are deflected in a magnetic field.

Originally Posted by blacknamed

I'm trying to understand why is that Electrons are considered negative and Protons considered positive? As much details as possible please.....

Quick answer:

Ben Franklin quessed wrong in which direction electrical current flowed. He assumed that electricity was a flow from a surplus (+) to a deficiency (-), but he had no way off determining which terminal was which, so he pretty much flipped a coin.

By the time it was discovered that the electron was the current carrier, the labeling convention had stuck. If Frankilin had decided to label the terminals the other way around, we would consider the electron to have a positive charge.

because of the way they behave, an electron and proton are pushing away from each other all the time, therefore one must be negative and the other positive, Franklin just got them the wrong way round

??? since when do opposite charges repell