How does a battery loose its charge?

[mr_coffee]

Hello everyone. I'm wondering about rechargable batteries such as in your cell phone. I can't seem to find anywhere on google that explains why they loose their charge if you say... only plug it in for 30 minutes then use it, the next time you charge it, how does that affect how much charge it can now hold/battery life? I know its not a myth but why does that happen?

 

[turdferguson]

Different batteriees behave differently. Some batteries must be drained all the way before recharging. If you dont, it will hold less of a charge next time. The lithium batteries in ipods and cell phones don't have these problems. They do, however, have a definite shelf life and will eventually hold less charge and then die

 

[mr_coffee]

Thank you turdferguson.

My parents yelled at me for not keeping the charge on the battery and said I would kill it. I told them no, it doesn't affect this type of battery. The Lithium ion batteries don't have memory affect which I found out is true.

 

[sachin_naik04]

when u charge a battery, it gets number of electrons (charged particles) from the mains current, later when u play music etc on your phone, your phone system makes use of these electrons one by one and hence they decrease (assume each of the electron gets disappeared as you play music for 30 secs, as it serves as a power)

when your battery becomes very old say 1 year then its capable of handling only certain number of electrons then before so u need to keep charging even more