I am developing electrical cells and was wondering whether the positive or the negative pole makes the dc volts.

Neither

You might want to clarify that question a bit. Which school of theory are you subscribing to. Current flow or voltage flow... they are opposite from each other.

When I change the copper to sterling silver or gold, the volts go up and no change in mA. When I change the copper back in the positive side and change aluminum to zinc, the mA go up. There is a difference and I was wondering if anyone had addressed this before. I looked around the net but could not find anyone testing this.

THen what you are dealing with is not what pole the electricity comes from and goes to... what you are dealing with are the properties of different materials when use in a battery cell.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by smoothy

You might want to clarify that question a bit. Which school of theory are you subscribing to. Current flow or voltage flow... they are opposite from each other.

---

Sorry, but voltage doesn't "flow."

To the OP: a voltaic cell, or a galvanic cell as it is also called, yields DC voltage between the two poles (anode and cathode). The level of voltage that it produces is dependent on the chemistry of the cell: the materials used for anode and cathode and the electrolyte. The current it produces depends on the circuit you connect it to - you can use V=iR to calculate current 'i' for a simple resistance circuit. The max current the cell is capable of producing depends on the physical size of the cell and its components. Hope this helps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ebaines

Sorry, but voltage doesn't "flow."

To the OP: a voltaic cell, or a galvanic cell as it is also called, yields DC voltage between the two poles (anode and cathode). The level of voltage that it produces is dependent on the chemistry of the cell: the materials used for anode and cathode and the electrolyte. The current it produces depends on the circuit you connect it to - you can use V=iR to calculate current 'i' for a simple resistance circuit. The max current the cell is capable of producing depends on the physical size of the cell and its components. Hope this helps.

---

I know that it doesn't literally. Common convention is that electriciy flows from positive to the negative... but in reality electrons are what flow... which have a negative charge and as such go from the negative to the positive poles.

If you look at their follow-up answer it appears they have been trying different anode and cathode materials and are seeing different votages as would be expected.