[Amps] Electron HOLE flow

[Fuqua, Bill L]

  In a workshop I teach, I explain to young students how current flows thru conductors.
I put them all in a circle and insert myself into the circle. Then I tell them that they are the 
atoms that make up the conductor and I am a battery, I give each a shinny new penny with
a negative sign on both sides. I then tell them that the pennies are free electrons and being
the battery my job is to take them in one hand and hand them out on the other. So I take one penny
into my positive hand from the first student, and telll him that now he is positive and must take one from
his neighbor. This continues until the student on my negative side is short an electron (penny) and I 
give that student another penny. 
   While doing this one day, we started going faster and faster until something went wrong.
A boy had two pennies and the girl next to him had none. I said, now we have a problem, remember, these are
young elementary students. I told the boy that now he is negative, and the girl is positive. One kid pointed 
out that they must be attracted to one another. The boy and girl both said "yuck".

73
Bill wa4lav

________________________________________
From: Amps [amps-bounces at contesting.com] on behalf of Fuqua, Bill L [wlfuqu00 at uky.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 6:23 PM
To: Roger (K8RI); amps at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Electron HOLE flow

sometimes I fell like Ben, given a 50-50 chance I always get it wrong.
Bill
________________________________________
From: Amps [amps-bounces at contesting.com] on behalf of Roger (K8RI) [k8ri at rogerhalstead.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 5:56 PM
To: amps at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Electron HOLE flow

On 8/28/2013 2:05 PM, Mike Waters wrote:
> Absolutely it is an illusion. IIRC, that was erroneously introduced into
> textbooks around 1970 the same time as the "electricity flows from positive
> to negative" nonsense. Whoever came up with the latter never heard of
> electron flow in a vacuum tube, among other things.

You are quite right. The vacuum tube hadn't been invented yet when + to
- (conventional current) was defined although you're a bit off on the
date.  EEs have used conventional current since there have been EEs and
it was defined by Ben Franklin.

73

Roger (K8RI)
>
> 73, Mike
> www.w0btu.com
>
> On Wed, 28 Aug 2013 03:54:29 -0400, K8RI wrote:
>>
>>> They still refer to "hole flow" in introductory semiconductors.
>>
>> REPLY:
>>
>> "Hole flow" is an illusion, much like the moving lights on a theater
>> marquee. If it helps to understand things fine, but holes don't move. It's
>> more accurate to say a hole is created in one atom and disappears in
>> another. For a brief time while the electron is in motion, there are
>> actually two holes.  Neither one "moves".
>>
>> 73, Bill W6WRT
>>
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