Do electrons repel each other?

[stevensrd1]

I read electrons repel each other, its something most anyone who understands electricity or know about electronics would agree upon, as its what they are taught. So if electrons repel each other, I have a question or two. Lets say you were making a simple circuit. Lets say it was just a light and a battery and of course the wires to connect the battery to the light. OK lets say I have not connected the positive wire to the bulb, but that I have connected the negative wire only. At that exact moment that I connect the negative wire. Do electrons from the negative terminal of the battery immediately go into that wire?? If we have negative electrons already on the negative terminal of a battery,,and if electrons repel each other and want to get as far apart from each other as they can,,then it seems like at the moment just the negative wire was connected,,that electrons would go into that wire as they repel and want to get away from each other,,so what do you think,,do electrons repel? Will they repel out of the negative terminal of a battery into anything they can,,as in any other metal,,seeing that they want to repel?? What do you think?

[fritznien]

yes.
when you apply a voltage to a single wire you get a small currant for a short time.
even a six inch piece of wire has some capacitance.
fritznien

[stevensrd1]

So your saying just by connecting only the negative terminal of the battery to a wire,leaving the positive terminal of the battery unconnected,that electrons did flow into that wire,,regardless of how many,,or when the wire became full of them that electrons then stopped flowing into it,,you are saying that electrons did flow into the wire??  Opinions Anyone?

[stevensrd1]

The reason I ask is because I hear two conflicting ideas. The first is that electrons flow in a closed loop circuit. The second is that electrons repel each other. But I do not hear that electrons only repel each other in a closed loop circuit. So I am confused. My question was if electrons repel each other, then if a wire is hooked to the negative terminal of a battery. Then will the electrons in the negative terminal repel each other and go into the wire. Even if the positive terminal of the battery is not connected to anything. This is not about will it power anything this way, its about will the electrons repel each other into the wire connected only to the negative terminal of the battery, even if nothing connects to the positive terminal of the battery

[mscoffman]

@stevensrd1,

I was thinking about this question relative to "electron gas"
and part b I was thinking about how to inform Rosemary's
understanding of electrical circuits.

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Electrons repel other electrons - Yes. Electrons are also fairly
light weight, low mass particles. - Yes

But electrons have another behavior relative to each other and
that is; if the electron's path is curved, other electrons will curve
also along with it...this is known as a magnetic field. So I think the
magnetic interaction is responsible for electrons tendency to form
currents. After all, a circut is a loop. Electrons curved path is
mathematically defined in that it has a calculus derivative.

---

You have got to understand the Particle-Wave Duality of physics
and statistical nature of physics to understand an electrical circuit.
In other words an electron is actally four different things simultaneously.
And the uneducated mind can't handle it. An electron is particle,
when you are measuring amperage, it is fermion when you
measuring voltage, and it has a statistical representation when
you are dealing with static electricity and it's wave when it's doing
columbic chemical bonding...but in reality it's all four of these things
simultaneously. So electrons are particles when they flow into a wire
but as soon as one is in it begins to change the statistical fermion sea
of electrons in a wire and a static electric charge is created that sucks
in or repels other electrons, which is really a statistical entity. So what
happens is that our analogical model of how we think about an electron
is flawed, and our basic model can only be used so far before it starts
to give erroneous answers. This is why physicists have long since gone
to blackboard, using mathematics to describe behavior while the rest of
us can only bicker about what is going on using flawed oversimplified
mental models. So physicsits do really understand what is going in
electron current flow.

:S:MarkSCoffman