[net.analog] Batteries as resistors

ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (12/07/84)

OK, first I apologize for calling who ever it was an asshole for originally
posting the battery is a capacitor line.  It occurred when I was in a rotten
mood and my urge to flame overrode my rule to be nice no matter how silly
someone's submission is.

> 
> Another way of looking at the battery vs capacitor controversy is the effect
> that a battery can have as a ripple filter.  If you put a battery (may not have
> to be rechargeable) across a power supply, you'd tend to see very little AC in
> the load.
>
Foo, this is also silly.  I put 25 volt capacitor on a five volt supply,
and the ripple dimishes.  I put a five volt battery (If I can find one)
on the line and when I exceed the current capacity of the battery the
ripple returns.  If I now switch the power supply to 7 volts the battery
and/or the power supply blow up.  The capacitor still works.  Batteries
also tend to lose any usefullness when the load increases.  The battery
here is playing voltage regulator not filter.  Look at a cheap calculator
cord sometime.  The thin windings limit the current to the nicads, but the
battery is providing the voltage regulation.  That is why you are warned
not to use the charger to power the calculator without the batteries in
place.

A battery is a resistor:
	Hey, I take a five volt supply with a constant current of 25 milliamp
and put a D cell in series with it (backwards) and I get a 1.5 volt voltage
drop, wow...
		E = IR
		1.5 = .025R
		R = 1.5/.025

An effective 60 ohm resistor.  Actually, I see resistors and batteries used
interchangably to provide voltage bias more than I see Capacitors filtering
AC ripple out of power supplies.

-Ron

winkg@vice.UUCP (Wink Gross) (12/11/84)

You're losing ground fast (pun intended).  Put two capacitors each 
charged to 1.5v in series and you will get 3v. What's the "something else"
that you're expecting?  Most of us can see that a battery is a highly 
non-linear capacitor, and, since they both store charge, it is unlikely 
that we're going to confuse a battery/capacitor with a resistor.

wink gross
tektronix, inc.