Why do batteries go dead in an unused flashlight while the rest of the batteries still in the pack stay good?

submitted by raven9 from self.AskSaidIt

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[–][deleted] 16 insightful - 4 fun16 insightful - 3 fun17 insightful - 4 fun -  (12 children)

I can explain this phenomenon, because i study it right now ! :-)

It is called "creep" current. Every source of current has certain things connecting its poles. Even the batteries in the pack will go dead. Most likely later because the resistance between them is higher than the resistance connecting the batteries in your flash-light. They most likely are connected by metal which itself has a low resistance, even when turned off.

[–]bobbobbybob 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (3 children)

They most likely are connected by metal which itself has a low resistance, even when turned off.

are you high?

When a flash light is turned off, there is NO CONNECTION. so your explanation needs to cover what allows the 'creep current'. There is no difference in the internal configuration of a battery in a pack or in a torch.

Is it migration of environmental electrons, limited by the surface area of the electrodes?

Because that would make sense. When plugged into a torch, the +ve and =ve surface areas increase by the SA of all the connected metal. There is no connection between +ve and -ve, otherwise the light would be ON.

In a battery box, the surface area is minimal, as the electrodes are just a button and a flat plate.

Will go find real science to verify

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

There is a phenomenon called Brownian motion and above that entropy.

Turned "off" in quantum physical terms means "mostly turned off". It doesn't even relate to a surface, as easily is proven with a statistical integral.

[–]bobbobbybob 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

you've failed to bring any real science to the table.

So here am I, with a masters degree from the university of cambridge, in Natural Sciences, with another Msc and 7 years of research, with one of my papers quoted in nature, and there you, a student with a head so big he has to thrash his cock on an internet forum to get validation.

If you want to bring hyperdimensional mathematics into this, bring it. I spent years working with it. Specifically with wave function solutions in 5d topologies.

If you are trying to imply that electrons are going to tunnel across a unclosed switch, then say it. i'm happy to stand corrected if you can demonstrate, mathematically, that quantum tunneling has a perceptible effect over the lifetime of a pack of batteries.

so. Bring it, maggot. bring some fucking science, not a dictionary

[–]Aiz0eihu 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

This is a good explanation of this phenomenon. Also explains why batteries left in a device for a long time start leaking.

[–]raven9[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

Even the batteries in the pack will go dead.

Yes eventually they do but what Im talking about is this - get a new pack of batteries, put some in a flashlight and save the rest. Six months later come to use the flashlight and find the batteries are nearly dead while the batteries that were left in the pack are still like new.

[–]Red23 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

He already answered you.

[–]bobbobbybob 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

he answered, but with nonsense.

It isn't called creep, it is called Self-discharge, creep describes changes in the internal electrodes over a number of charge/discharge cycles.

The explanation given talks about lower resistance when in a torch, but provides no mechanism.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

That is is difference in resistance. Higher resistance means lower creep current.

Ideal isolators are only a model to think of. Every electro-technician to be knows that these don't exist in reality.

And since i did mathematics and physics already and just now are in third semester electrical engineering: You can trust me on this.

As soon as you start to abstract it you get to "inner resistance" and then to a PDE nobody possibly can dream of solving. So just accept my first humble explanation.

[–]bobbobbybob 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

You can trust me on this.

hello liberal. We trust no authority but god and our own cognition. I'm an actual scientist and I say your explanation is sorely lacking.

Nothing internal changes about the batteries when the are in the torch, so there can be no change in internal self-discharge processes. There must be something else going on, if the effect is real. You have not even begun to explain what that is.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Bring counter-proof. To the table. I invite you.

Then we'll re-account and prove in 5 minutes that black matter ain't just any idea.

[–]bobbobbybob 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

you haven't come up with a coherent explanation, so it is impossible to 'counter proof' since you have not described a proof in the first place.