Battery Symbol – continued

The figure provided here illustrates how a battery is connected in a circuit. In this circuit, a battery is connected to a resistor (R.) Current can flow through a battery if the external circuit is complete. Notice that in this case we use connecting wires to connect the two sides of the battery to a resister.

The arrows indicate the flow of current. Notice that the current flows from the anode (positive electrode), through the circuit, back to the cathode. We mentioned this earlier, but to repeat: This is purely an arbitrary convention. At some time, someone decided that current will flow from the positive side to the external circuit. Notice that internally, the current, coming back after going through the resistor, reaches the cathode, flows from the cathode to the anode and back out again.

We said earlier that cathode, is negative because, internally, electrons flow to it. Now electrons, flow through the external circuit and make their way back to the anode. This direction is opposite to that of current.

It serves little purpose to get confused about it. You simply need to remember that our convention is that the current flows from the anode through the external circuit, back to the cathode.