The direction of an electrical current

[cosmik debris]

If an Electrical Engineer had access to a time machine the first thing he/she would do is go back to the time of Benjamin Franklin, kick him in the nuts, and tell him to regard electrons as having a positive charge.

Cheers

 

[Merlin3189]

I wonder if OP is using CW & ACW as right handed and left handed, as in screw threads.

As far as the direction of current being determined by magnetism, I wonder if OP is thinking of placing a compass needle by the wire, so that the direction of deflection indicates the direction of current.

The problem of

I place both coils in the between the battery terminals, positive right and negative left. The 2 coils will have opposite magnetic fields, so if the current is moving from positive to negative only and creating different magnetic fields based on the coil winding clockwise or counterclockwise, how can it be said that the magnetic field is the only determining factor of what direction the current is moving?

then seems like he has simply not realized how the geometric change affects the magnetic fields. If I placed two compasses at different points along a straight wire between the battery terminals, I too would be surprised if they pointed in opposite directions (ie. in opposite senses of the same direction, provided the compasses were similarly positioned, say below the wire.)
It seems to me that op is focused on the flow in the direction between the battery terminals and not recognising the effects of turning the wire perpendicular to that direction in forming the coils.

Perhaps he could be helped by doing more simple experiments with single wires, or even just thinking about them.

BTW Dale, I've done experiments like this. I know my teacher always put a rheostat in series with the battery and I approve his caution. But when I did it at home, I didn't have a rheostat, so built the circuits with battery and wire. I'm pretty certain I never got an infinite current, even when the circuit was just a short piece of wire which got hot and burnt my fingers. I guess I was lucky to have those rare bits of equipment, batteries with internal resistance and coils wound with wire having resistance. (And of course, nearly flat batteries, because they had been so abused.)
I haven't checked through PF, but I'd be ready to bet that the majority of circuits (assuming there are others of this simplicity) don't bother to show a rheostat or a symbolic resistor to represent the battery internal (& wire?) resistance, unless it is germane to the question being asked.

 

[CWatters]

What do you get if you look at this from opposite ends? To me it looks like it is a clockwise wind regardless.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Solenoid-1.png

Darn it you are correct. I'll correct my earlier posts if possible.

 

[Dale]

I'm pretty certain I never got an infinite current,

That is why I said “as drawn”.

I'd be ready to bet that the majority of circuits (assuming there are others of this simplicity) don't bother to show a rheostat or a symbolic resistor to represent the battery internal (& wire?) resistance, unless it is germane to the question being asked.

Maybe not, but it is still sloppy, regardless of how good of a bet sloppiness is.

 

[berkeman]

I regret posting anything, please remove, thank you

Looks like it's time to close the thread. Thanks to everybody for trying to help the OP with his understanding of circuits and EM.