Battery Trivia Questions and Answers
An electric battery is a device consisting of one or more
electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical
energy into what?
A: Electrical energy.
Each cell contains two what?
A: Terminals for connection to a circuit.
Of the two terminals a cell needs, one must be the positive
terminal, or cathode, and the other must be what?
A: A negative terminal, or anode.
Electrolytes allow ions to do what?
A: Move between the electrodes, which allows current to flow in and out of the
battery.
Primary batteries are used once and then discarded because
the electrode materials are irreversibly changed during what?
A: Discharge.
Secondary batteries can be discharged and recharged
multiple times because the original composition of the electrodes can be
restored by doing what?
A: Reversing the current flow through the cell or battery.
One example is the lead-acid batteries used in what?
A: Cars.
Another example of a secondary battery is the
lithium ion
battery used in what?
A: Cell phones.
Batteries come in sizes from miniature cells used for
wristwatches to battery banks the size of what?
A: Rooms that provide standby power for computer data centers etc.
Batteries have much lower "what" than common fuels such as
gasoline?
A: Specific energy.
The usage of "battery" to describe a group electrical
devices (cells in an electric battery) is attributed to whom?
A: Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin got the term "battery" from where?
A: The military, which refers to weapons functioning together as in a battery of
cannon.
Who was the first person to describe an electrochemical
battery?
A: Alessandro Volta.
Early batteries were of limited usefulness because they
could not provide a large "what" for a sustained period?
A: Current.
What was the first practical source of
electricity?
A: The Daniell cell, invented in 1836 by British chemist John Frederic Daniell
The Daniell cell was widely adopted as a power source for
electrical what?
A: Telegraph networks.
These early cells were called wet cells because the
electrolytes they used were what?
A: Liquid.
Wet cells, because of their liquid electrolyte, were prone
to what?
A: Leakage and spillage.
The early cells often used what to hold their components?
A: Glass jars.
Near the end of the nineteenth century, what
invention made
portable electrical devices practical.?
A: The Dry cell.
Batteries convert chemical energy directly to what?
A: Electrical energy.
The voltage across the terminals of a cell is known as the
what?
A: Terminal voltage.
The terminal voltage of a cell that is neither charging nor
discharging is called the what?
A: Open-circuit voltage.
What causes the terminal voltage of a cell that is
discharging to be smaller than the open-circuit voltage?
A: Internal resistance.
The terminal voltage depends on the energy release of what?
A: The chemical reactions of its electrodes and electrolyte.
What is the approximate terminal voltage of Alkaline and
zinc–carbon cells?
A: 1.5 volts.
What is the approximate terminal voltage for NiCd and NiMH
cells?
A: 1.2 volts.
What is the terminal voltage for cells using lithium
compounds?
A: 3 volts or more.
