When a battery is connected to a circuit the voltage appears to the circuit as half a pulse and is propagated as an em wave, as any other pulse would be. This em generation must be the result of charge acceleration at the battery terminals: conduction electrons being accelerated towards the battery at the battery anode and battery-pumped electrons being accelerated into the conductor surface at the cathode. However all the mobile carriers were, on average, stationary prior to connecting so as each and every electron starts to move it must accelerate and thus generate an em pulse. But this is just my guessing as I’ve not come across any text on the subject. Is my reasoning correct?
1 Answer
The microscopic analysis of charge flow in DC circuits is not covered in general texts but the following 1993 document was found “New Approach to Introduce Basic Concepts in Electricity” by Herman Haertel: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300765070. This covers the subject well, describing the charge acceleration at switching time and the propagation of the electro-magnetic wave providing the necessary surface charge distribution for establishing current flow. Of course almost exactly similar to the treatment of transmission lines.