Terminal Voltage: Solving for 12V Motorcycle Battery Charger

[burnst14]

Homework Statement

(a) Find the terminal voltage of a 12.0-V motorcycle battery having a 0.520 Ω internal resistance, if it is being charged by a current of 11.7 A.

(b) What is the output voltage of the battery charger?

Homework Equations

ΔV = ε - IR
or
V_terminal = ε - IR

The Attempt at a Solution

ΔV = 12 - (11.7*0.52) = 5.916 = V_terminal

This is incorrect. WebAssign also returned this information:

"What is the sign of the current if it is flowing into the positive terminal of the battery? How is terminal voltage related to the internal resistance and battery emf?"

So I made it negative and submitted the response: -5.916

Still wrong. What am I missing?

 

[gneill]

You have an external voltage (the "charger") supplying a given current into the battery (which includes an internal resistance). Draw the circuit and pencil in the current and potential drops for the given current.

 

[burnst14]

My physics teacher was able to help me. I was missing the fact that the current would have to be made negative since the charger was inputting a current. Thanks though!