Say I have an open circuit with a battery. I have a wire connected to the negative terminal and a wire connected to the positive terminal. The wires aren't connected.
In this scenario, would their be electron flow for a very short amount of time? Would the electrons from the negative terminal flow through the wire connected to it, since the potential would decrease between the electrons?
To clarify what I mean, consider the first diagram in this image:
In the first diagram there a large amount of electrons in the negative terminal. Would the electrons in the negative terminal distribute themselves through the wire to minimize the force between them?
Answer
Keep in mind that the wire is a metal and thus already has a great deal of free electrons. The battery is not a source of electrons, it's a pump to move what is already there.
Still, you can view the system as a very small capacitor, with the wires being the plates. They would be relatively far apart and have very little surface area so the capacitance would be very very small. So, yes, I think there would be electron transfer, but it would be negligible and it would only last an instant.
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