I have recently posed the following question to my calculus based
physics class and am not sure I understand the results.
Given two capacitors C1 and C2 charged to potentials V1 and V2
respectively determine the energy stored in them.
Now connect the two capicitors together positive to positive and
determine the potential difference and energy stored in the capicitors.
If the energies are different, where did the energy go?
To my surprise, the energies are different and I am not sure where the
energy went. Did the changing flux of E-field create a B-field that
took away energy? Were photons emitted? How can the energy loss be
time independent? Am I way off?