Battery Arrangement and Power
In many devices that use batteries -- such as portable radios and flashlights -- you do not use just one cell at a time. You normally group them together serially to form higher voltages, or in parallel to form higher currents. In a serial arrangement, the voltages add up. In a parallel arrangement, the currents add up. The following diagram shows these two arrangements:
The upper arrangement is called a parallel arrangement. If you assume that each cell produces 1.5 volts, then four batteries in parallel will also produce 1.5 volts, but the current supplied will be four times that of a single cell. The lower arrangement is called a serial arrangement. The four voltages add together to produce 6 volts.
ACER TRAVELMATE 240 SERIES laptop battery
Li-ion, 14.80V, 4400.00mAh
Fits acer laptop battery PN: 909-2420, 91.49V28.001, BT.00803.004, BTP-58A1, BTP-59A1, BTP-60A1, BT.T3004.001, BT.T3007.001, BT.T3007.003, LC.BTP01.003, LC.BTP03.002
Normally, when you buy a pack of batteries, the package will tell you the voltage and current rating. For example, a digital camera might use four nickel-cadmium batteries that are rated at 1.25 volts and 500 milliamp-hours for each cell. The milliamp-hour rating means, theoretically, that the cell can produce 500 milliamps for one hour. You can slice and dice the milliamp-hour rating in lots of different ways. A 500 milliamp-hour battery could produce 5 milliamps for 100 hours, or 10 milliamps for 50 hours, or 25 milliamps for 20 hours, or (theoretically) 500 milliamps for 1 hour, or even 1,000 milliamps for 30 minutes.
However, batteries are not quite that linear. For one thing, all batteries have a maximum current they can produce -- a 500 milliamp-hour battery cannot produce 30,000 milliamps for 1 second, because there is no way for the battery's chemical reactions to happen that quickly. And at higher current levels, batteries can produce a lot of heat, which wastes some of their power. Also, many battery chemistries have longer- or shorter-than-expected lives at very low current levels. But milliamp-hour ratings are somewhat linear over a normal range of use. Using the amp-hour rating, you can roughly estimate how long the battery will last under a given load.
Manufacturers caution against disassembling batteries to avoid personal injury.
If you arrange four of these 1.25-volt, 500 milliamp-hour batteries in a serial arrangement, you get 5 volts (1.25 x 4) at 500 milliamp-hours. If you arrange them in parallel, you get 1.25 volts at 2,000 (500 x 4) milliamp-hours.
Have you ever looked inside a normal 9-volt battery?
It contains six, very small batteries producing 1.5 volts each in a serial arrangement!
Batteries have proven to be one of the most important inventions of the 20th century and are becoming more so as we continue the shift toward a more mobile lifestyle. In the future, batteries will grow smaller, more powerful and longer lasting in order to keep up with our fast paced, portable world.
Read the other related article>>
Top 10 Cold Weather Tips for Laptops
New Laptop Battery
Laptop Batteries - Why Do They Have a Short Lifespan?
Save Your Laptop From Water Damage
How Many Cells Are In A Laptop Battery
Battery and Electric
Battery Acid Spill Containment
Choosing a Power Drill
How to Using a Power Drill
PDA Use in Health Care
How to Fix a Broken Laptop
How to Find Your Laptop's Brand and Model
What is a Short Circuit?
Cocktails to Power up Your Batteries
The World's Most Dangerous Battery
Battery Arrangement and Power
How do the battery testers on battery packages work
Why Do Batteries seem to go dead and then come back to life if you let them rest?
Cordless Drill With Li-ion Batteries
Testing Cordless Drill Batteries
What causes laptop batteries to overheat?
Tips to Keep Your Laptop Battery in Good Working Condition
How to Maximize Cordless Drill Battery Performance?
4 Step to Improve a Cordless Drill Battery!
How Can I Revive an 18V Drill Battery?
Can I use my old Ni-Cd battery charger to charge my Ni-MH batteries?
Should I Remove the Laptop Battery For A Desktop Replacement Laptop?
5 Laptop Battery Maintenance Tips
Introduction to How Lithium-ion Batteries Work.
Inside a Lithium-ion Battery Pack and Cell.
Lithium-ion Battery Life and Death.
Laptop AC Adapter Stopped Working, What shall I do.
