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The sign convention used in Ohm's law is called the passive sign convention, which states that the current flows from the positive terminal of a voltage source to the negative terminal.
The passive sign convention is used in Ohm's law because it follows the direction of electron flow and is consistent with the direction of current in most electronic devices and circuits.
If the sign convention is not followed in Ohm's law, the calculated voltage, current, and resistance values will have opposite signs, which can lead to incorrect results and confusion in circuit analysis.
No, there is also the active sign convention, which is used in certain special cases, such as when analyzing active components like transistors and amplifiers.
The sign convention does not affect the polarity of voltage and current in a circuit. The polarity of voltage is determined by the direction of current flow and the orientation of the voltage source, while the direction of current is determined by the polarity of the voltage source and the direction of electron flow.