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> Full car batteries weigh an infinitesimally larger amount than empty ones. [...] It's worth noting that when depleted, the battery still has electrons, it ju
by cbm-vic-20 3y ago
> Full car batteries weigh an infinitesimally larger amount than empty ones. [...] It's worth noting that when depleted, the battery still has electrons, it just has fewer,
Is that actually true? Does the battery (as a whole) have a different number of electrons than the number of protons? If I brought a negatively charged chunk of material near the battery, would it require more force to move it closer to the battery when the battery is charged (because by what you're saying, a charged battery has more electrons in it)?
- fragmede 3y agoAh no looks like I'm wrong. I updated my comment.
- 8note 3y agoPretty sure the number of electrons is the same, but they have a higher potential energy, which can be described as mass via ∆e=∆m*c^2
- basementcat 3y agoThe difference in mass is due to the difference in potential energy. Recall that E=mc^2 (I was excited when I got to use this for the first time in a problem set)