why completely used up batteries seem to have a small bit of energy again after some time.

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why completely used up batteries seem to have a small bit of energy again after some time.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

In this post I think the OP is mainly referring to the chemical aspect of the phenomena that can be observed in non-smart devices, or purely mechanical devices (that have no software-power-management).

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For example:

If you’re old enough to remember using a Walkman, you’ll know that if your double AA batteries run out… but you then wait a while, then try pressing play on the tape again, it will spin up and run again for a little bit, before… running out of juice again.

You could do that a few times, before the 2 AA batteries would no longer spin the tape-motors.

After that, you would then switch to just running the radio (which used a lot less energy than spinning motors). And then again the radio stops working. So you wait a bit again, and then the radio’s working again! But then you wait again, etc… etc…

This process repeats and repeats over and over again, until finally the battery can’t even power the radio anymore.

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Anyways, so ya, this cycle works with other purely mechanical devices too (not just the 80’s/90’s Walkman example I gave).

So that’s what I think the OP is asking about.

But, it’s worth noting that in today’s age, this question does sometimes have a new twist to it, involving software-based energy management of a device, like the kind done by the latest smart-phones.

For that additional new software based element, u/ProPolice55 gives a good description of that above.

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