Eli5 Why do dead phones come back to life after a while? Where does the extra charge come from?
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Batteries develop uneven charge distribution during discharge and it takes some time for the distribution to even out inside the cells. When the battery is fully charged you don’t notice but as it gets nearly dead, it can be enough for the voltage to drop below whatever the device considers “dead”.
When it sits for a while not doing anything, the charges and electrolyte can balance out. This is physical migration of molecules within the battery, it’s not instant. That bring the voltage up a bit, potentially enough to go back over the “dead” threshold and the device can operate a little bit longer, until the imbalance builds up again and you drop under the “dead” level. Each cycle will be shorter until, even with the battery fully back at equilibrium, the voltage is still “dead”.
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