Re: [Phys-l] battery redux and again (part deux)

[Larry Smith <larry.smith@snow.edu>]

At 10:16 PM -0500 2/28/07, John Denker wrote:
> 2) It is amusing in a macabre way to read the textbook "mechanical"
>  analogies of how a battery works, based on VdG generators and such.


I think this is promoted in the article by Sherwood and Chabay that Justin
cited
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~rwchabay/mi/circuit.pdf
And their argument seems (to me) to be precisely to proceed from the known
to the unknown.  This seems entirely reasonable for an intro class, given
your claim that "the microscopic mechanisms inside batteries are insanely
complicated."

Larry