Why does voltage increase when batteries are connected in series?

[sophiecentaur]

@suzieplague
The problem with home brewed models is that they tend to be inconsistent in their use of accepted terms and do not produce the 'right' results. This is visible even in the first line of your post in which you confuse Potential with Charge. Try to stick to the accepted explanations rather than bending the facts to fit a personal view. Only people at the rock face of Science can get away with that. Did you try reading a textbook about this stuff? What did it tell you?

 

[Cornel_92f]

The following sites helped me understand this concept more:

MVP: http://www.valgetal.com/physics/Batteries/batteries.htm

http://chemistrybook2011.blogspot.ro/2011/05/function-of-salt-bridge.html

 

[sophiecentaur]

When people want help with 'understanding' concepts like Electricity, without having done all the ground work they are asking to 'jump the queue' and there is a massive danger that they will still be in no position to be able to predict the outcomes of new situations. (And that is what some understanding requires). I was very lucky to have been taught my Physics in what would be called an inflexible way. "Just learn all the rules and apply them" gives you the chance, once you actually have done that, of coming to correct conclusions all on your own and with confidence. Magically, when you revisit stuff and start to ask the 'why and how' questions, with that solid grounding, the answers seems to be at your finger tips.
Strange, isn't it?
It's a bit like the golfer who said "Funny, the more I practice, the luckier I seem to become."

 

[rbelli1]

because the textbooks say that the current isn't doubled

What the textbooks mean is that if you have two cells each capable of a maximum of 1A and you stack them you get a battery of twice the voltage but still only 1A maximum.

In the meter you will get approximately (exactly for ideal cells) twice the current flowing as long as it draws less than 1A for this example.

BoB

 

[Windadct]

For circuit analysis we deal with abstractions - there are different ways to make a resistor, and for fundamental analysis we do not need to know HOW the resistor is made - and we accept that one resistor does not have any effect on the the others in the circuit.
The batteries are just a voltage source, in fact batteries can be defined quite well with only a few parameters. A 1.5 chemical battery in series with a 1.5 V PV (solar) cell - is also 3.0 V--- that does not mean that we do not need to learn about the battery or the PV Cells or we should not study them. But once the battery is assembled it is just an element in a circuit, it has no chemical (non electrical ) interaction with other batteries.
To parrallel Sophie's comment - it is difficult (impossible?) to learn and understnd it ALL at once.

 

[NascentOxygen]

This thread has run its course.

Thanks to all contributors.