Bank of Batteries ?

Yes, it should be called an "AA cell". If you you buy a pack of several, it should still not be called a battery -- it is a pack of several cells. These cells would become a battery when connected together.

However, the sellers of AA cells are likely to describe them as 'batteries' because that is the word the majority would use, incorrect though it might be.

Try a dictionary then, not friggin google. Google is for popular items. I am quite sure that discussions on the meanings of words like battery garner few hits there. Hell, even wiki covers it right. There are more than one search engine out there, ya know.

Engineers and other folks in the industry with any brains at all have ALWAYS known the difference between a cell and a battery.

Consumers, on the other hand, have ALWAYS simply followed what was put in their face buy the industry. Some "battery" makers (cell makers) mark their packages correctly, some do not.

Hell, some even state it right in their brand name (DuraCELL).

Fact is, a single unit is a CELL. A pack of cells is a BATTERY.

So single cells are cells, and a nine volt, which is a stack of single cells in a single package IS a battery.

A car battery is a package of cells.

Some of us never experienced this confusion you seem to possess.

Not really -- a pack of cells is a pack cells. They could be made into a battery by connecting them together.

Even though I'm an electrical engineer, I'm on the side of the majority here. The single cells come in a variety of sizes, which all happen to produce about the same voltage. What's the difference between a C cell and a 9V battery? They're a different shape, but there's no electrical or chemical reason for this. The shapes are different purely because the squarish shape of a 9V battery fits better into the sorts of devices (e.g. portable radios) that commonly need a 9V supply. The only way to find out that the C "battery" consists of a single cell and a 9V battery contains six cells is to pull them apart, and it's impossible to do that without inflicting severe damage on the casing.

The voltage produced by an electrochemical cell depends on the materials used, but the technically savvy know that practical cells almost always produce a voltage somewhere in the range 1 to 2 volt. (And the most common of them produce 1.5 volt.) That's how we can deduce that a 9V battery must contain several cells. Many people don't have that knowledge, and there's no good reason for insisting that non-technical people should have it.

By the way, it's possible to connect two 1.5V cells in parallel, to produce a 2-cell battery whose output is indistinguishable from that of a single cell. (The motivation for this is to provide a higher current and/or to extend the battery life.) Depending on how it's packaged, even the technically educated might not realise that there's more than one cell inside.

Back in the days of vacuum tube portable equipment, when it was common to need something like a 96V battery, it was more obvious to the observer that the battery was built up as a huge array of little bricks, so that the distinction between "cell" and "battery" was clearer to everyone. Now that everything's hidden inside the outer casing, the distinction is less obvious.

I can even give a technical defence. If we define a battery to be a voltage source made up internally of N cells, what is so special about the case N=1? It's on a level with quibbling whether 0 is a natural number. The answer is a question of convention, not physical law.

A "pack of cells" such as that which would be found in a nine volt battery IS a battery, and they ARE connected together.

I don't need semantical baby bullshit. I was not referring to a blister pack of cells as would be found in a store, like you mentioned earlier.

We are talking about voltage sources, so the reference to "a pack of cells" would of course, be referring to their intended method of use, as in a four pack of cells in a camera... a battery.

A bunch of artillery pieces on a transport plane is still a "battery" even before it gets to its intended destination and actually gets set up as "a battery" of artillery pieces, however, the same is not true of a package of cells at the store. I do know the difference.

Also, even before one closes the "battery door" on a camera, the cells inserted into STILL constitute a battery, even before the door is closed, and they actually become connected together. So it is more about intended purpose or use, than actual configuration at the time of observation.

Sheesh.

Bullshit.

A single cell is a single cell. A nine volt battery CONTAINS SIX 1.5 Volt SINGLE CELLS INSIDE in a SERIES CONNECTED STACK, and IS a battery.

THAT IS the difference.

Bullshit. It had to do with delivery of a specific amount of Ampere Hour support. Many nine volt applications simply did not require the same current draw as lower voltage devices, and in the lower voltage class, note that many cell sizes and capacities are made and available.

Unrelated tripe.

Even the most lay person, basic electronic/electricity course covers cell construction, and the carbon zinc single cell is the primary example/tool for such instruction.

Even a base level dope mechanic knows that each fluid cap on a car battery was for filling the individual CELLS within said battery, much less the bright mechanics.

Still, consistent package labeling over the years would have conveyed such information, without doubt.

Do you know what the construction of the old 72 Volt lamp/B+ batteries were? Are you gonna tell us that it was 48 1.5 cells in a stack? (It was)

Also, placing yourself above the average Joe makes you less than an average Joe. Nice job.

Most average Joe's are fairly capable of discerning more "technically savvy" information than you might (apparently do) think.

Parallel or series, if more than one cell is used, it STILL constitutes a battery. It makes no difference what the final voltage of a given configuration is. If it is a multiple cell configuration, it IS a battery. If it is a single unit, it IS a cell. There are no exceptions.

Even then, when they were wrapped in card stock paper, they were "less obvious".

The fact is that the marketing arms of the manufacturers are to blame for the shift in what everyday folks call their portable, chemically based DC voltage sources.

On 24 Jul 2007, Spurious Response wrote

Where did Peter say anything at all about the "average Joe"?

He mentioned "many people" and "non-technical people"; averages -- or even majorities -- weren't cited or implied.

Posters to this group tend to choose their language carefully, and it's thus reasonable to assume that Peter was referring to "many" "non-technical" people when he wrote those terms, rather than to "an average Joe".

Yes, and the convention IS that a single unit is a cell, and any array, whether packaged together or assembled together in their destination device is a BATTERY of cells.

THAT IS the convention in the electronics industry, and the rest of the world, as well as any in our realm that believe otherwise is faltering, not us.

Sure was. He placed himself above others in his remarks, and that IS the inference. Try again.

Apparently not, and some apparently do not interpret it very carefully either as is shown by your post here.

It is not reasonable. What IS reasonable is to assume that my expression was and is synonymous with his, which it quite clearly is.

Perhaps except to pedantic, tunnel visional dolts.

On 24 Jul 2007, Spurious Response wrote

[shrug]

It's marginally amusing to watch posters like you trying to defend their sloppy reading, writing, and thinking skills.

Cross-posting sometimes throws up some quite interestingly cross posters, doesn't it?

They do. But let's look at the Duracell website:

DURACELL PLUS AA BATTERIES (Pack Of 4)

Some of the people replying here are reading this thread in alt.usage.english (Peter Moylan, HVS and me, at least).

We are well aware of differences of wording between technical terminology and the common names for things.

Duracell use the common name "battery".

Consumers do not need to know the difference between a cell and a battery. They just need to buy an item with the correct label.

It is simple and straightforward for the consumer for all purchasable items of this type to be called batteries.

1. These are properly known as collective nouns, not plural nouns.
2. The word battery is itself a collective noun (for battery of cells, cf. the army term battery of guns.) Early domestic radio receivers (approx. 1925) required low-voltage direct current, which was supplied by an acid-filled device that had to be recharged at intervals. Only in the 1930s was circuitry marketed so that a receiver could generate its own DC voltage internally.

The modern automobile battery still exemplifies the word. It is still a set of interconnected acid-filled cells, i.e. a battery of cells.

On Jul 24, 8:49?am, Spurious Response wrote: [...]

You do need some manners, though, and the calmness to read what Prof. Moylan actually wrote.

On 24 Jul 2007, Mike Lyle wrote

Fat chance, methinks....