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Old 06-21-2014, 01:26 PM   #7
JFP in PA
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: It's a kind of magic.....
Posts: 6,614
Quote:
Originally Posted by particlewave View Post
I agree that the alternator should be checked (probably a bad voltage regulator).

However, electricity does not work that way, JFP.
Electrons have a negative charge, thus they are attracted to the positive "holes" of the positive terminal. In a DC circuit, electrons flow from negative to positive (electrons are pushed away from the negative terminal because likes repel, and attracted to the positive terminal because opposites attract).
However, the direction of current flow in any part of a given circuit is unknown and only theoretical. You can calculate the net charge of a complete circuit, but the actual directional flow of current within the circuit is completely unknown. Any electronics engineer knows this

That said, electronic circuits are designed with the flow of negative to positive in mind, so reversing the polarity can and will damage things.

1) possibly

2) very likely

3) less you had a hook up that way for a long time, no.

4) I believe you are referring to the gym points in order to pop the funk in the case of a dead battery...?

Check all of your fuses.
You will note that my quote says "current" flow; to wit, according to multiple published works on the subject:

"When electricity was discovered, nobody knew how it works and electrons were unknown. So the scientists just defined one of the poles as "positive" and said that the current is flowing from positive to negative. That still is the definition of an electrical current's flow direction. However, later scientists discovered that in most (but not all) materials current is carried by negatively charged electrons, which travel from negative to positive. The electron flow is thus opposite to the current flow."

Current flow is what does the damage in a DC circuit, and with the battery reversed is was flowing backwards from the ground, into the electronics, and then to the fuse; so by the time a fuse would blow, the damage was already done.

And I'll bet you are still smarting from Loren telling you to go sit down..........................
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Last edited by JFP in PA; 06-21-2014 at 01:40 PM.
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