There is a lot of lore online about car batteries and jump starting. So I am looking for technical clarification from those with expertise in this area.
I believe a typical non-electric car requires an initial peak of a couple hundred amps (at 12V) or more to spin the starter motor at sufficient speed to initiate combustion in the engine.
I am most interested in a scenario where the car's (lead acid) battery is not just weak but dead, meaning that it is incapable of providing anywhere near this amperage. So for discussion let's take a car that I have tried to jump recently. The starter motor is rated at 800W (it's a small car), so that would be I guess a steady-state max current of ~67A, but apparently these motors typically peak briefly way above that so let's say 200A peak.
Now assume the car's battery can only do 10A at 12V due to being previously discharged too much for too long without a charge. I guess this causes a difficult-to-reverse damaging chemical state (sulfation, the crystallization of lead sulfate) and high internal resistance. Say it is a generic modern maintenance-free sealed battery (not AGM or Gel) with plates and liquid inside.
Now say one attempts to jump start this car using the following:
1) The healthy & charged battery of another running car which is known to be able to supply more than 200A
2) Jumper cables that are of a gauge and length that would allow 200A to actually make it to the contacts in the dead vehicle at or near full voltage.
(for example
https://www.wirebarn.com/Wire-Calculator-_ep_41.html claims a 4 gauge [5.2mm] cable can send 220A@12V ~22ft/6.7m with less than 10% drop)
So my questions are:
1) Would we expect this jump start scenario to be successful (in general)? Why or why not?
2) What effect would the presence of the damaged battery in the circuit have on the ability of the starter motor to receive the necessary current? Could the bad battery somehow actually sink a significant portion of the power due to its resistance (or some other property) and prevent it from getting to the motor?
3) What is the minimum viable contact surface area needed between the jumper clamps and the battery terminals? Is it equal to the cross-sectional area of the cable? (assuming it's a good contact without dirt in the way)
I did not realize until recently that most jumper cables are too long and/or thin gauge to provide the full starting current, so the battery in the car being jumped actually has to contribute a significant fraction (or the bulk) of the current
Notes:
a) Please correct any of my assumptions or numbers if they are off
b) Assume of course there is no other electrical or mechanical issue that would prevent jump starting so we can focus just on the core questions. E.g. the starter motor works fine and when it is able to do so, it can initiate combustion. Etc.
c) This is a US model car