Pronounce Positive

Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.

William Cowper

In a metal wire, does electrical current flow from positive(+) to negative(-) or the opposite? Since current is carried by negatively charged electrons, current flows from the negative(-) labeled end to the positive(+). Confused? Here’s a quick Khan Academy video that explains how Ben Franklin’s naming of electric charges with + and - signs started that convention of positive-to-negative. Then, 150 years later, the electron was discovered and people decided it was easier to keep Franklin’s convention than change it.

About the author

William Cowper (6 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him “the best modern poet”, whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem “Yardley-Oak”.