Best. Electronics. Tutorial. Ever.

Think you know how electricity flows through a circuit? Think you know how transistors work? Well, in the immortal words of Firesign Theater: Everything you know is wrong. Or at least slightly off; less than accurate. This article, on an amateur science website, will help clear things up. Here are a few choice tidbits:

…you must abandon the idea that CURRENT travels in transistors or flows inside of wires… Current does not flow. Electric current never flows, since an electric current is not a stuff. Electric current is a flow of something else. (Ask yourself: what’s the stuff that flows in a river, is it “current” or is it called “water?”)

“So what flows inside of wires? The stuff that moves within wires is… is called Electric Charge. It’s the charge that flows, never the current….

[Later]

…Have you discovered the big ‘secret’ of visualizing electric circuits?

ALL CONDUCTORS ARE ALREADY FULL OF CHARGE

Wires and silicon …both behave like pre-filled water pipes and water tanks. This simple fact is usually obscured by the phrase “power supplies create current” or “current flows in wires.” Once we get rid of that word “current,” we can discover fairly stunning insights into simple circuits.

If the two-part piece gets too gnarly for you, there’s a shorter summary article.