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needingtoknow
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Homework Statement
When it comes to charging a capacitor I'm under the impression that when a parallel plate capacitor is hooked up to a battery, that electrons simply flow from the negative terminal to the plate that is connected to the negative terminal, causing that plate to become the "negative plate" and electrons that are on the plate connected to the positive terminal will flow towards the positive terminal making that plate the "positive plate". This process occurs until the voltage of the capacitor matches the voltage of the battery. This is basically what the diagram that I attached is trying to explain.
I have two questions with respect to this explanation:
1. When I was reading up on charging a capacitor, I read that work is required to transfer charge from the positive plate to the negative plate and that transfer of electrons from one plate to another is what charges the battery, clearly not what I explained above in the first paragraph. I am obviously missing something here. I would appreciate your help in clarifying the process of charging a capacitor.
2. There is a space between the first plate and the second plate, which means the circuit is incomplete UNLESS what is happening is that electrons are being transferred from the "negative plate" to the "positive plate". Is that true?
Thank you very much!