Capt. NealŪ wrote:
I'm talking about two 12v batteries in a series circuit meaning one
positive pole connected to the negative pole of the other battery. The left over positive
and negative poles must be connected to some sort of circuit and load such as a light bulb or
electronic gadget that will
cause current to flow through the entire circuit.
In such a circuit, neither battery will charge the other, they
will only be
discharged together through the load.
The same current will flow through both batteries, and in both
batteries you
can regard the current as "flowing out" of the positive pole.
To charge a battery, current must be flowing "into" the positive
pole, which
can only happen if you connect two batteries in parallel, where
one is more
discharged than the other.
Meindert
You are wrong. You cannot run current though a battery backwards.
You charge with a charging
source that has higher voltage than the battery and by wiring it so
there exists a complete
circuit.
Duh, Current NEVER flows through the battery. A battery stores and
releases electricity
chemically. There is no circuit passing through the battery. The only
circuit that exists is
external to the battery. View a battery as a gasoline tank gas
(electrons) can be added
to the tank or removed from the tank. It's a storage device and not a
pipe of some sort
that has flow one way or the other inside it.
that stores or releases electrons. A battery is a tank and only tank. It is not
a circuit.
CN
OK, what do you call this "release of electrons"? Conventional current
flow is usually referred to as "current flowing from + to - in a
circuit. In reality is the movement of electrons from the - pole to
the + pole. If electrons move within the battery, there is by
definition, current flow.
There is only current flow in a circuit. Where you test for flow at
the battery terminal is definitely outside the battery and part
of a circuit. A battery is a dead-end storage device that is connected
to a circuit externally to power it.
Electrons don't move within the battery in a circuit. They power chemical
reactions that store or release electrons. Hence the term, storage battery.
They go in, they go out, they don't go through.
Because there is a circuit between the two batteries which circuit provides
higher voltage at the poles of the battery with lower voltage so electrons
can flow IN to drive chemical reactions which store said electrons and
increase the overall state of charge of the battery. Never do electrons
flow through the battery - only in and out.
Picture lead/acid batteries as a tank, not a circuit, and you'll begin to
understand. They are used to power circuits but they, in themselves, are
not a circuit.
CN
If it is like a tank, why do you have to connect the negative lead from
your solar panel? I fill my gas tank with only one hose. Maybe it's so
that the electrons from one side of the solar panel can get back to the
other. That's called a "complete circuit" which is necessary for current
flow (or electron flow). If the electrons don't move through the
battery, how do they get from one side of the circuit to the other?
krj
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