Quote:
Originally Posted by PairTheBoard
I'm probably wrong about this too, but is seems to me the symmetry might break down if, for example, you just connected the (-) straight to the (+) terminal with no motor in between. It seems to me the (+) plate would be the first thing to heat up as the flow of electrons cascade into it.
I assume that your intuition here is that you're imagining how water flows off the top of a waterfall smoothly and crashes at the bottom, or something like that.
I don't think this is true, but admittedly I'm not entirely sure. If you short a small battery (something that won't kill you), the entire wire heats up, and not just the terminals. I think this is because the electrons bump into the wire particles as they move through. I don't see why you would not expect the negative terminal to heat up for the same reason. It's not as if the negative terminal is magically collision-free. The actual chemical reaction is happening inside of the battery, and the negative terminal is functionally like a part of a wire.