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Batteries: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
How Batteries Work
A battery stores energy chemically. When it’s connected, a reaction pushes electrons out of the negative end, through your device, and back to the other end.
Key fact
Alessandro Volta made the first battery in 1800.
Volts & Capacity
Voltage is how hard a battery pushes; capacity is how long it can keep going. A AA battery gives 1.5 volts, while a phone battery holds far more energy.
Key fact
The volt is named after Alessandro Volta.
Rechargeable Batteries
Rechargeable batteries run their chemical reaction backwards when charged. Lithium-ion batteries power most phones, laptops and electric cars.
Key fact
Heat is one of the biggest enemies of battery life.
Car Batteries
Electric car batteries hold hundreds or thousands of lithium-ion cells. Battery pack prices fell by about 90% between 2010 and 2023.
Key fact
A typical electric car battery holds around 50 to 100 kWh.
Batteries for the Grid
Giant battery farms store solar and wind power and release it when needed. They can respond to grid problems in a fraction of a second.
Key fact
South Australia’s big battery, built in 2017, was once the world’s largest.
Recycling Batteries
Batteries contain valuable metals like lithium, cobalt and nickel. Recycling recovers them and keeps toxic materials out of landfill.
Key fact
Batteries shouldn’t go in household bins: they can start fires.
Batteries of the Future
Researchers are working on solid-state and sodium-ion batteries, which could be safer, cheaper or faster to charge.
Key fact
Sodium is far more abundant than lithium.
Fun facts
Benjamin Franklin first used the word “battery” for electricity, borrowing the military term for a row of cannons.
A 9-volt battery is usually six small 1.5-volt cells stacked inside one case.
John Goodenough shared the Nobel Prize for lithium-ion batteries at 97, making him the oldest Nobel winner ever.
Worn-out electric car batteries often get a second life, storing energy for homes or the grid.
South Australia’s big battery was built after Elon Musk promised it within 100 days or free. It was done in time.
Car lead-acid batteries are among the most recycled products on Earth: around 99% in the US.
A lemon with two different metals pushed into it can make a tiny battery.
Story: The Twitching Frog
The Twitching Frog
1780s, Bologna. Luigi Galvani notices that a dead frog’s legs twitch when touched with metal. He decides animals carry their own “animal electricity”.
Alessandro Volta disagrees: he thinks the electricity comes from the two different metals, and the frog is just a detector.
To prove it, in 1800 he stacks discs of zinc and copper with brine-soaked card in between. The pile gives a steady current: the first battery.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
Batteries store energy chemically.
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True. A chemical reaction releases it as electricity.
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Question 2 of 10
A standard AA battery gives about 1.5 volts.
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True. Common alkaline AAs do.
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Question 3 of 10
Charging reverses a battery’s chemical reaction.
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True. Ready to run it forwards again.
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Question 4 of 10
A typical electric car battery holds 50 to 100 kWh.
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True. In hundreds or thousands of cells.
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Question 5 of 10
Big batteries can store solar power for later.
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True. Sunshine at noon, power in the evening.
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Question 6 of 10
Batteries contain valuable metals.
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True. Like lithium, cobalt and nickel.
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Question 7 of 10
Sodium is more abundant than lithium.
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True. It’s in ordinary salt.
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Question 8 of 10
Batteries are filled with stored electricity, like a tank of water.
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False. They store chemical energy, turned into electricity on demand.
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Question 9 of 10
Voltage measures how long a battery lasts.
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False. That’s capacity. Voltage is the push.
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Question 10 of 10
Lithium-ion batteries can’t be recharged.
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False. They’re the most common rechargeables.
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