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Batteries don't do so hot when it's cold. If you live in a cooler climate,
遇冷时，电池运行不佳。如果你生活的地方较冷，
you may have noticed this in the form of your car refusing to start on a chilly morning,
那么你或许注意到了，在寒冷的早晨，你的车拒绝启动
or your battery level plummeting on your phone while you stand on the train platform in the freezing cold.
或者当你站在冰冷的火车站台上时，手机的电量直线下降。
But it's not the batteries' fault exactly. It's not that technology works worse in the cold. It's chemistry.
但这并不是电池的错。并不是电池在严寒中运行不当，而是化学过程的问题。
And that's a much harder problem to fix. Batteries aren't just big buckets of negatively charged electrons,
化学是一个更加难以解决的问题。电池不仅仅是一大桶带负电荷的电子，
even though that's what moves through the wire when you plug a battery into something.
虽然当你使用电池时，会有电子穿过电线。
The electrons start as part of neutral atoms or molecules, and they're released by a chemical reaction inside the battery.
电子一开始是中性原子或分子的一部分，电子内的化学反应会将它们释放出来。
As a result of the reaction, the electrons move through a wire and meet up with positively charged molecules on the other side of the battery.
反应的结果是，电子穿过电线，与电池另一侧带正电的分子相遇。
That movement creates a current that powers your stuff.
移动会创造出电流为你的设备提供电力。
The exact chemistry depends on the type of battery, but that's the general idea for all of them.
具体的化学反应取决于电池的类型，但这是所有电池的基本原理。
And it's also where temperature comes in. Temperature is a measure of heat.
温度也是因此而来。温度是对温度的测量。
And at a molecular level, heat is movement. It's particles jiggling around.
按照分子水平而言，热就是运动。它是粒子的振动。
Higher temperatures mean more molecular movement and more molecules bumping into each other,
更高的温度意味着更多的分子运动以及更多分子的相互碰撞，
which makes chemical reactions more likely. So, in general, when the temperature drops, chemical reactions slow down.
因此化学反应更有可能发生。一般来说，当温度下降时，化学反应就会减慢。
But how much depends on what's reacting. Which helps explain why you might notice some batteries suffering more than others in winter.
但其程度取决于是什么样的反应。这也帮助解释了为什么你或许注意到了一些电池比其他电池更容易出问题。
Not all batteries are made from the same stuff. Traditional alkaline batteries, for instance,
并不是所有电池都是由相同物质制成。例如，传统的碱性电池，
like many non-rechargeable AAs, AAAs, and the like, contain a solution of water and potassium hydroxide.
如很多不可充电的AAs和AAAs等，含有水和氢氧化钾溶液。
That watery solution can freeze at really low temperatures, but it starts losing its chemical punch well before it actually turns to ice.
这种水溶液冰点很低，但在它真正变成冰之前，它的化学作用就开始减弱了。
So don't try to use your TV remote outdoors in a blizzard. That's our advice for you.
所以给大家一个建议：不要在暴风雪的户外使用电视遥控器。
Then there are lithium-ion batteries like the one in your phone.
还有手机里的锂离子电池。
They tend to beat alkalines in cold weather, but even they have their limits,
在寒冷的天气里，它们往往能战胜碱，但即便如此，它们也有极限，
something that's been holding back electric cars in areas that get really cold.
在一些非常寒冷的地区，一些因素阻碍了电动汽车的发展。
A phone battery's cold-weather performance actually tricks the phone into thinking it's dead.
手机电池在寒冷天气的表现实际上会让手机误以为它已经没电了。
The difference between a charged, cold battery and a dead battery is that the charged battery
有电的冷电池和没电的电池之间的区别在于有电的电池
still has the capacity to produce enough electrons to theoretically power your phone.
仍然有能力产生足够的电子来为你的手机供电。
But because the temperature slows down those reactions, the electrons are released too gradually to do any good.
但因为温度会让这些反应变慢，因此电子释放过程太缓慢，起不了什么作用。
Your phone doesn't have a thermometer, meaning it doesn't know how cold it is.
你的手机没有温度计，这意味着它不知道有多冷。
So it just assumes there's nothing left in the battery to react, which is what happens when the battery's dead.
所以它假定电池里没有任何东西可以反应，当电池没电的时候就会发生这种情况。
So the phone tells you the battery is low, when really it's just cold.
所以手机会告诉你电池电量不足，而实际上它只是很冷。
Warm the battery up, so that more reactions can happen again, and the phone will realize it still has more juice.
让电池热起来，就会再次发生更多反应，手机也将意识到它仍有很多电量。
One other very common battery is the lead-acid battery, widely used in cars.
另一种很常见的电池是铅酸蓄电池，广泛用于汽车。
Cold slows that reaction, too but it also makes oil and other components of the engine harder to move.
低温也会减缓反应，但也会使机油和发动机的其他部件更难移动。
So that's double trouble for you, making some cars particularly hard to start on cold mornings.
因此，这对你来说是双重麻烦，一些汽车在寒冷的早晨特别难以启动。
So be nice to your batteries this winter. If your phone dies on you, just hold it against your body like a little baby duck.
所以冬天对你的电池好一点。如果你的手机没电了，就像抱着小鸭子一样抱着它。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow, and thanks to our patrons for making it and everything we do possible.
感谢收看本期节目，感谢赞助人的支持，让我们能做这一切。
You are awesome, and you're helping make free stuff for the whole world to enjoy.
大家超棒，为大家提供了免费享受的视频。
If you're interested in joining this community of awesome humans, check out patreon.com/scishow.
如果你想加入我们的社区，点击查看patreon.com/scishow。
