The name of the positive terminal of a battery

Thread Starter

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
Recently, on the TV game show “Jeopardy”, the answer was “The name of the positive terminal of a battery”.

The correct question asked what is... and either anode or cathode.

How would you respond?
 

Thread Starter

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
I would say when it is charging it is called the anode, when it is discharging it is called the cathode.
@Yaakov (welcome back), They did not specify if it was charging or discharging.

The answer which was accepted is “What is a cathode?”.

I would have answered “What is an anode?”.

@Delta prime , you don’t seem to be familiar with Jeopardy. It is a trivia show where the answers to questions are supplied and the contestants must reply with the proper question
 

peterdeco

Joined Oct 8, 2019
484
Anode · The anode is the positively charged electrode. · The anode attracts electrons or anions. · The anode may be a source of positive charge or ...
 

Thread Starter

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
Here is the Jeopardy’s team response to my challenge of the question. I wrote in stating I questioned the correctness of their decision.

‘The electrode of a battery that releases electrons during discharge is called anode; the electrode that absorbs the electrons is the cathode.

The battery anode is always negative and the cathode positive. This appears to violate the convention as the anode is the terminal into which current flows. A vacuum tube, diode or a battery on charge follows this order; however taking power away from a battery on discharge turns the anode negative. Since the battery is an electric storage device providing energy, the battery anode is always negative.'

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/bu_104b_building_blocks_of_a_battery#:~:text=The electrode of a battery,terminal into which current flows.
 

q12x

Joined Sep 25, 2015
1,658
Interesting subject. I look it up on my favorite website and it turns out the cathode is the positive terminal only when "supplying electric power" , very important detail. And vice versa, when the battery is charging up as an accumulator, the same positive terminal becomes an anode, but this time receiving electrical power.
1614797596400.png
 
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ElectricSpidey

Joined Dec 2, 2017
2,758
On jeopardy its not always about giving a correct question, its about giving the wanted question.

A long while back I was watching an episode where the answer was "makes the stars twinkle?"

The question in response was "what is gasses".

Nope sorry...wrong question...the correct question was "what is the atmosphere".
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,071
Here is the Jeopardy’s team response to my challenge of the question.
If they”d said “primary cell”, I might accept it but in the case of secondary cells they spend half or more of their time being charged so...

Thanks, it’s good to see folks again.
 

bwilliams60

Joined Nov 18, 2012
1,442
When it comes to batteries, i always like to refer to Battery University which states in BU104b:
1614817060834.png

According to this, the correct answer is cathode. Jeopardy is not Jeopardy without Alex Trebek. RIP
 
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