Although weve shown the anode positive with symbol

Starting electronics

ting diode) connect to the more positive side in the circuit. A breadboard layout is shown in Figure 6.4, though by this stage you should perhaps be confidently planning your own breadboard layouts.

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Diodes I

Figure 6.5 The circuit again, but with the diode reversed

What happens? You should find that absolutely nothing happens. The LED does not light up, so no current must be flowing. The action of reversing the diode has resulted in the stopping of current. We can summarise this quite simply in Figure 6.6.