Ok how the fuck does voltage increase happen when batteries are connected in series?

If a battery is just (at least) 2 parts. One holding electrons, the other needing electrons, and the two have nothing to do with one another other than being glued inside of the same container, then how the fuck?

To me it's like a box holding 2 balloons: One full, one empty. Hook a box just like them on either side with the full balloons venting to the empty balloons, and the empty/full pair on the end just does the same thing.

I clearly am missing something incredibly profound here and I need to be educated because, frankly, I'm aint real bright

Me, in my stupidity, feel that the feat of hooking batteries in series should look like this



[Edited on August 1, 2014 at 4:02 AM. Reason : asdf]

8/1/2014 3:41:45 AM

fucking batteries how do they work?

8/1/2014 8:21:30 AM

Voltage:electricity::pressure:fluid.

8/1/2014 9:16:02 AM

Quote :

"Voltage:electricity::pressure:fluid."

8/1/2014 10:12:22 AM

omg im actually familiar with that concept! it's helped me a great deal in the past.
But..hmm

It's in the "diagram" i posted, but now that I have interneted a little more I realize that it is flawed in the sense that the diodes and cathodes, while physically separate from one another, are not completely isolated.

Is one of the components acting as some kind of crazy ass diode?

8/1/2014 2:39:53 PM

What we need is an online encyclopedia to explain this shit. That's what we fucking need.

8/1/2014 6:42:54 PM

Or a place for people to talk and text about how republicans are fags on the internet! Now we're making progress!

everyone pitch in. I think this guy's onto something

8/1/2014 7:01:57 PM

connecting anything in series is additive in nature with respect to voltage.

8/1/2014 8:24:22 PM

*the anodes and cathodes

8/1/2014 9:01:45 PM

thanks lewis
outside of complete failure to use correct terminology, I think i've got this one (half way) sorted out.

Duke, I wonder how that functions with capacitors. Probably identically, function wise?

That mysterious "electrolyte" in batteries that allows free transfer of electrons between the two electrodes but somehow doesn't discharge the battery is something I think I need to do some reading on.

[Edited on August 1, 2014 at 11:14 PM. Reason : right]

8/1/2014 11:13:41 PM

Caps in series are additive in voltage. Capacitance is totaled inversely in series, though.

[Edited on August 4, 2014 at 2:10 AM. Reason : ]

8/4/2014 2:09:44 AM

Batteries are an oxidative process with one chemical changing to another, just like fires or explosions, just a much, much slower release of energy. It's not really like a typical capacitor or diode where the same substance remains, just with different charges inside of it.

8/4/2014 10:43:31 AM

Quote :

"That mysterious "electrolyte" in batteries that allows free transfer of electrons between the two electrodes but somehow doesn't discharge the battery is something I think I need to do some reading on."

Don't think about it like that. There are two simplification rules that apply here:

1. A battery's positive terminal wants to be X voltage above the negative terminal.
2. Any points connected together with zero resistance will be the same voltage.

There are a lot more complex factors to these "rules" but they make thinking about simple circuits like this easier.

In terms of your drawing, and assuming 1.5V batteries like AAs. Point F wants to be 1.5V higher than E (Rule 1). Point E and Point D are at the same voltage (Rule 2). D wants to be 1.5V higher than C, and so on. If you call point A ground, B/C is +1.5V, D/E is 3.0V and F is 4.5V. Does that help?

[Edited on August 5, 2014 at 9:26 AM. Reason : .]

8/5/2014 9:26:09 AM

As mysterious as magnets.

8/5/2014 4:26:59 PM

that infograph tho...

[Edited on August 5, 2014 at 4:29 PM. Reason : .]

8/5/2014 4:29:13 PM

^^Ferromagnetism is well understood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFAOXdXZ5TM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TKSfAkWWN0

8/5/2014 4:48:25 PM

Sorcery

8/5/2014 7:51:19 PM

8/5/2014 9:00:27 PM

Quote :

"That mysterious "electrolyte" in batteries that allows free transfer of electrons between the two electrodes but somehow doesn't discharge the battery is something I think I need to do some reading on."

Electrons are produced at the anode by a chemical reaction (oxidation), travel through the external circuit, and are consumed at the cathode by a second chemical reaction (reduction).

Internal to the battery, ions move through an electrolyte between the cathode and anode to facilitate the oxidation and reduction reactions at each; cations move from anode to cathode and anions travel from cathode to anode. Electrolytes should be good ionic conductors but not good electronic conductors.

TL;DR: Electrons travel outside the battery, ions travel inside the battery.

8/6/2014 4:22:10 PM

^verrryyy niiice. my favorite so far along with the description of ions being free flowing in the electrolyte, but not electrons (necessarily)
Guess that would explain why my multimeter doesn't register a closed circuit, but gets stable ohm readings in only one direction.
Thanks you guys!

Yeah my drawing illustrates my ignorance pretty thoroughly.

TWW 251: Best class ever

8/7/2014 5:34:14 PM

Multimeters typically measure resistance by applying a known current and measuring the voltage drop across the unknown resistance. Whatever values you saw on the multimeter didn't really mean much of anything.

Sorry

8/9/2014 6:11:46 PM