A total newbie question, but something I'd like to know nonetheless.
You can buy AA batteries with a rating of 2300mAh (if not higher), as you know, AA batteries are quite diminutive in size.
Compare with my laptop's batteries, almost brick-like in comparison, these are rated for 4700mAh Lithium-Ion
So how can an AA battery, but a fraction of the volume of my laptop's batteries, have half the capacity?
Or am I missing something?
Thanks
You need to factor in the voltage, and look at the total power in Watt hours.
AA =1.5V * 2.3A = 3.45 Watt Hours
Laptop Battery = 12V (see rating) * 4.7A = 56.4 Watt Hours
-- Not only that, with lithium ion having an energy density of 270WH/l and alkaline 320WH/l, a lithium battery would have to have about 1.5 times the volume of an alkaline for the same capacity.
The AA battery is a single 1.5 volt cell. Your laptop battery may be
14.8 volts, so it can hold about 20 times the energy of the AA cell.-- Peter Bennett, VE7CEI Vancouver BC, Canada peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca
Yes, you are missing the electrochemistry differences of various storage devices. They all have their place and they all are different.
As a general rule rechargeable batteries have a lower capacity for a given size.
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