Electrical – Run out of electrons

currentelectron

If electricity is a flow of electrons in a wire then eventually all electrons will leave the beginning of the wire and reach the end of the wire. Is that possible? Why if not? What will happen then if yes?

Best Answer

A battery is a device which has a bunch of electrons on one side of it and a lack of electrons on the other side. When you put a wire between the contacts, the electrons run to the other side until there is charge balance. Then, you're right, no more electrons will flow. You have to recharge the battery or get a new one. Note that even when you "run out" of electrons in the charge balanced case, all of the electrons are still there, they're just in a different position. Some are left in the wire; most are back in the battery just in equal amounts on each side of the battery.

In short, you're right though.

With AC power, you're pushing and pulling electrons 60 times a second in order to extract work out of them. In that case, all of the electrons are always there and don't really move unidirectionally unlike the battery case.