On April 9, 2017 at 22:18, Ernie Gilman said...
I placed that right after amir's description of Brownian motion, during which some molecules of water (in his example) fly off of the surface and others join the water. I was asking if electrons do this, that is, some flying off of wires into the air while others come from the air onto the wires. This is not arcing as arcing is a phenomenon that occurs when one makes and breaks wire connections. There IS a parallel, which is corona discharge, but you won't get that from a couple of batteries connected plus to plus... once again I'm trying to bring the discussion back to the original AND ONLY situation I wanted to discuss.
Maybe the water's electrons are jumping because of the difference in the substance's state- liquid vs solid wire.
If it's possible for current flow to stop because the difference in voltage between the two bodies is too small, even at the molecular level, to make any more current flow, then they could be at equilibrium as seen from ten feet away while not at equilibrium at the molecular level. Both cases might be called "truly in equilibrium" while different from one another.
If the current stops, it would seem that something else is involved, such as oxidation.
If you take an electronics class, you will be finding out things while having no specific application in mind. Lack of a specific application does not mean the information is not worth gathering, nor the journey not worth taking. One of my favorite books is Feynman's "The Joy Of Finding Things Out." THAT is my specific application -- to find things out. If I ever use the information, cool, and I'd be ahead of other people who never thought to ask.
Feynman had a show on TV in the '70s, IIRC- very enjoyable.
Sure it does. I want to know. If you want to say that I didn't give the reason that I want to understand, then okay, but I'm not going to go build something when we get this worked out. Sorry if that's not practical enough!
I want the answers that describe the situation. People have said that electron flow stops; that the batteries are at equilibrium; that things equalize; but nobody has said yes or no as to whether there's some tiny voltage differential required to get the electrons started.
I don't want to confuse these batteries with diodes, but when you start in electronics you learn (A) that diodes only conduct in one direction. Later you learn that (B) when they conduct, there's a forward voltage drop across them. I'd say with regard to the battery problem, we are all insistent that we know what happens and we're talking about an (A) level of things, while I'm wondering if there's a (B) level of things, much more subtle, that we simply don't bother to ask about.
If you want to know these things, why are you asking us and not a physicist?
BTW- what type of battery materials? If you're including Lithium, consider dendrites as a cause for stopping current.
