What stops a battery from just equalizing its own charge internally? By which I mean, why do the electrons have to go all the way around the circuit to get to the negative terminal?
Batteries have an insulated separator between the positive and negative sides. They design the battery with a particular maximum voltage in mind, so they engineer it with a separator that is always a higher resistance. Thus the electrons will only be able to make the jump when a circuit with lower resistance is formed.
What stops a battery from just equalizing its own charge internally? By which I mean, why do the electrons have to go all the way around the circuit to get to the negative terminal?
High resistance materials between the areas of charge. Nature is inherently lazy, and will take the lower resistance path through the circuit.
Batteries have an insulated separator between the positive and negative sides. They design the battery with a particular maximum voltage in mind, so they engineer it with a separator that is always a higher resistance. Thus the electrons will only be able to make the jump when a circuit with lower resistance is formed.
What would happen if that insulating barrier broke? Would the battery explode or just heat up or something?