{"id":408,"date":"2008-11-05T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2008-11-05T18:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/battery-vs-cell\/"},"modified":"2011-05-31T19:30:15","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T01:30:15","slug":"battery-vs-cell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/11\/battery-vs-cell\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Battery&#8221; vs. &#8220;Cell&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I thought of these two nouns recently when I had to refill a flashlight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Problem:<\/strong><br \/>\nOne of these in everyday speech is often misidentified as the other in discussions related to electricity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Explanation:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn electrical terms,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a &#8220;battery&#8221; is an electrically connected combination of two or more &#8220;cells&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>a &#8220;cell&#8221; is something that converts chemical energy into electrical energy, usually via an electrolyte and two substances with different conductivities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A &#8220;cell&#8221; typically has an electromotive force of about <a target=\"_cell\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Leclanch%C3%A9_cell\">1.5 volts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, a &#8220;battery&#8221; has an electromotive force that equals 1.5 volts times the number of cells in the battery.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the <a target=\"_PP3\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/9-volt_battery\">PP3 battery<\/a>, which is commonly called a &#8220;9-volt battery&#8221; and truly <em>is<\/em> a &#8220;battery&#8221;, has an electromotive force of 9 volts because it comprises six &#8220;cells&#8221; within its case.<\/p>\n<p>As another example, if you put four &#8220;D&#8221; cells in a flashlight, you have a six-volt battery in the flashlight.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, although many dictionaries indicate that one of the definitions of &#8220;battery&#8221; is &#8220;cell&#8221;,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>this refers to everyday speech,<\/li>\n<li>this is <em>not<\/em> the primary definition, and<\/li>\n<li>this is technically <em>incorrect<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Solution:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen it comes to electricity, use &#8220;cell&#8221; for the &#8220;AA&#8221;, &#8220;AAA&#8221;, &#8220;C&#8221;, and &#8220;D&#8221; units that can be bought in stores, and use &#8220;battery&#8221; to refer to a connected set of these units or to refer to the 9-volt, &#8220;PP3&#8221; unit popularly used in smoke detectors, alarm clocks, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought of these two nouns recently when I had to refill a flashlight. Problem: One of these in everyday speech is often misidentified as the other in discussions related to electricity. Explanation: In electrical terms, a &#8220;battery&#8221; is an electrically connected combination of two or more &#8220;cells&#8221;; a &#8220;cell&#8221; is something that converts chemical&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-common-english-blunders","category-nouns","category-versus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Battery&quot; vs. &quot;Cell&quot; - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/11\/battery-vs-cell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Battery&quot; vs. &quot;Cell&quot; - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I thought of these two nouns recently when I had to refill a flashlight. Problem: One of these in everyday speech is often misidentified as the other in discussions related to electricity. 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