Eli5: Why do charged electronics (Game controllers, eReaders,) lose their charge when they’re not being used?
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Batteries are made up of two or more materials. When we store electrical power in batteries, we basically use an electrical voltage to “push” electrons from one half of the battery to the other, changing the materials/chemicals inside a little to force them to have more or fewer electrons than their default/natural state
Essentially we take an electron from one chemical (forcing it to have one fewer electron than it wants), and give it to the other (forcing it to hold an extra one). When we connect a circuit, they try to go back the other way to their more natural state, pushing electrons along the wire to create a new voltage we can use
Unfortunately we can’t perfectly insulate either chemical from contact with the other or the outside world, so over time electrons will slowly “leak” back to where they “want” to be, losing the charge because the electron imbalance we forced to be there is reduced
It’s a bit like pumping water up to a tank so that later you can release the water through a turbine to make electricity…. over time a bit of water will leak through the valves or evaporate, reducing the amount of stored energy
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