I've had this explained to me before, and it just hasn't clicked. I'm hoping maybe another wording might do it.
Why is a complete circuit necessary, at the scale/from the point of view of charge carrier? Of course I know that if you connect a wire between the positive terminal of one battery to the negative terminal of another, no charge will flow (unless the batteries' other terminals are connected to each other as well).
If I'm an electron on the negative side of one battery, it's crowded; there are lots of electrons on that side of the battery (call it the source battery). Now I'm given an escape path to the other battery's positive terminal (call it the target battery). That (the positive) side of the target battery has a shortage of electrons. Why can't I take the path unless other electrons from the target battery are given a path to go to the source battery? Why does it have to be an exchange? I understand that Kirchhoff's laws exist, but why? What force acts on the electron to keep it from migrating through a conductor unless there's also a second conductor to the other terminals?
Why is a complete circuit necessary, at the scale/from the point of view of charge carrier? Of course I know that if you connect a wire between the positive terminal of one battery to the negative terminal of another, no charge will flow (unless the batteries' other terminals are connected to each other as well).
If I'm an electron on the negative side of one battery, it's crowded; there are lots of electrons on that side of the battery (call it the source battery). Now I'm given an escape path to the other battery's positive terminal (call it the target battery). That (the positive) side of the target battery has a shortage of electrons. Why can't I take the path unless other electrons from the target battery are given a path to go to the source battery? Why does it have to be an exchange? I understand that Kirchhoff's laws exist, but why? What force acts on the electron to keep it from migrating through a conductor unless there's also a second conductor to the other terminals?