Diodes Explained - The basics how diodes work working principle pn junction

[Applause] hey there guys Paul here from the engineering mindset calm in this video we're going to be looking at diodes to understand the basics of how they work as well as where and why we use them so what is a diode a diode looks something like this and it comes in different sizes they typically have a black

cylindrical body as a stripe at one end as well as some leads coming out to allow us to connect it into a circuit this end is known as the anode and this end is the cathode but we're going to see what that means later on in this video you can also get other forms such

as the Zener diode or an LED which is a light emitting diode but we're not going to cover those in this video a diode allows current to flow in only one direction in a circuit if we imagine a water pipe or the swing valve installed as water flows through the pipe it will

push open the swing gate and continue to flow through however if the water changes direction the water will push the gate shut and it will prevent it from flowing therefore water can only flow in one direction this is very similar to a diode we use them to control the direction of current in a

circuit now we've animated this video using electron flow which is where the electrons flow from the negative to the positive however you might be used to seeing conventional flow which is traditional in electronics engineering and this is where the electrons flow from the positive to the negative electron flow is what's actually occurring but you might come across

conventional current still as these explanations are easier to understand just be aware of the two on which one we're using so if we connect a diode into a simple led circuit like this one we see that the LED will only turn on when the diode is installed the correct way and that's because it allows current