Title, why can we drive for hours and hours on end, with headlights, radio, a/c, etc. (besides stopping for gas, bathroom breaks) But when we leave a light on for as much as an hour, the car battery will pretty much die instantly.
In: Engineering
There’s a part in the car called an alternator that takes energy from the engine when it’s running and transfers that energy to the battery to keep it charged, which is why you don’t run out of battery power when you’re driving. If the alternator goes bad, the belt on it snaps, etc., then you definitely can run out of battery power after driving a little bit.
A healthy car battery won’t “die instantly” just by using it for an hour or so, but it’s not designed to be drained over many hours (for instance, leaving the lights one) at once.
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