As you are quivering in the edges of your seats, you wonder if all of this was a hallucination...
For this I only have one answer: yes...
The passage you've seen before was essentially a work of fiction, but writers write lies to expose the truth. Science in many cases is no different. These thought experiments are powerful tools, which help you go into the middle of the action, especially in something obscure like a battery. Sometimes the smaller details are simplified or even removed entirely. Yet the essential kernal of what you are talking about, or even explaining to yourself is still there. With my apologies in any inaccuracies I may have taken in the composition of my story, I will proceed to a more formal discussion of the operation of the battery.
As we "experienced", there are two half reactions taking place in either side of the battery. For this instance, we saw a zinc and copper strip. Zinc has a tendency to lose electrons, while the copper cations gains electrons. This explains why the copper seems to appear out of thin air, while the zinc began to dissolve.
| Zn(s) -> Zn2+(aq) + 2e- | 0.76V |
| Cu2+(aq) + 2e- -> Cu(s) | 0.34V |
*(aq)-> in solution, (s)-> in solid phase
Without each other, there were be no place for the electrons to go, hence there is no reaction. When we connect the circuit using a switch, we create a need for motion, for both the negatively and positively charged particles. The two half reactions becomes this.
| Zn(s) + Cu2+(aq) -> Zn2+(aq) + Cu(s) | 1.10V |
The numbers you see would be the "height" the charged particles would fall when the reaction is complete. Here the potential difference becomes 1.10V. I'll be discussing how we'll be using these values later.
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