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

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

I just added a new subsection to my "battery" writeup:
  http://www.av8n.com/physics/battery.htm#sec-electro-chemical

Executive summary:
             Charge is part of the stoichiometry.

That is, chemical reactions won't proceed unless you account
for all the atoms /and/ for all the charge.

If you try to think about the chemistry separately from the
charge-balance, you have no hope of understanding how batteries
work.  For the next level of detail, see
  http://www.av8n.com/physics/battery.htm#sec-electro-chemical


This point is woefully under-emphasized in the usual textbook
treatments.  Indeed, the usual discussion of ``oxidation numbers''
has a tendency to obscure this point rather than to clarify it.