i am confused with the concept when electrons flow from the negative terminal to the positive terminal of a battery then why the negative one is called lower potential and positive one higher potential while the difference in negative charges is termed as potential difference?

Answer 1

Outside the battery, electrons do flow from negative (cathode) to positive (anode). Why? The chemicals attached to the anode will need (gain) electrons when the circuit is completed, those electrons then assist the chemical reaction. At the negative terminal, inside the battery, the chemical reaction needs to lose electrons. So when the external circuit is completed, the chemical reactions move electrons from the cathode (negative terminal) to the anode. Eventually, this stops, when the chemical reactions are complete.

Now Potential. Many years ago, the early sciententists did not know that in wires, electrons carried the charge. They actually annualized the opposite, and current flowed from higher potential to lower potential (think of a water fall). High potential was the source of this current (again, the waterfall). It stuck. So now we still (in engineering, and physics, say current flow is from positive to negative, when we know ELECTRON FLOW is exactly the opposite. Some teachers think this is too hard for understand for students, so they just say current flow is from negative to positive. Then students really get confused in college when profs and texts have it from positive to negative (remember, current flow is defined as the direction a POSITIVE charge carrier would go).

Now potential, in that view, the higher potential (like the waterfall), is the highest positive number.

Now consider the waterfall.
top of fall is 100m above observer.
the water hits three places, one is 15 m above the observer, one is 34 m below the observer, and the last is 65m below the observer. The potentials are
+100, 15, -34, -65

Lets look at potential difference:
between top and first landing (85)
between first landing and bottom(80)
between bottom two (-34 - (-65))=31 notice it is positive! like the waterfall again.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Lord: My eyes. Not "annualized" but visualized.

Answer 3

you mean that higher potential is related with electric current!!!!I understood