I tend to agree with Bob that we have more potentially domaging
misconceptions than the one which can possibly result from taking the
phrase "charging a capacitor" in a perverted way. But the phrase
"energizing it" is probably better and I will start using it.
Thinking about the origin of this one must turn to an old term, condensor,
and what it used to be compared with, an accumulator. To charge a battery
means "to restore the active material by the passage of a current in the
direction opposite to that of normal use". An energized capacitor sparks
like a batterry. Perhaps the term charge (an attribute similar to mass)
was unfortunate. To charge a wagon means to load a material into it. Is
the "apparent weight" the same thing as the "material load"? Here we are,
F and m again!
I propose the Marcian word SPIRK as a replacement of charge. Why spirk?
Why not? Find a better word. Nobody will follow such proposals. But the
Marcian word quark is now part of our vocabulary.
Nothing profound, just an observation. Ludwik Kowalski
P.S. A message from William Beaty was worth thinking about.