How batteries work - Adam Jacobson

Translator: Mehmet Sıddık Dilek Reviewer: Daban Q Jaff

You probably know the feeling.

Hatiye serê we jî

Your phone utters its final plaintive "bleep"

dema ku hûn bi têlefonê diaxivin

şarz xilas dibe û têlefon tê girtin.

and cuts out in the middle of your call.

In that moment, you may feel more like throwing your battery across the room

Di dema wisa de mirov dixwaze têlefonê bişkîne

than singing its praises,

û dilê xwe hênik bike.

but batteries are a triumph of science.

Lê pîl nûjeniyeke girîng e.

They allow smartphones and other technologies to exist

Têlefonên me û gelek tiştên din yên teknolojîk

without anchoring us to an infernal tangle of power cables.

bi saya pîlan bêkablo dixebitin.

Yet even the best batteries will diminish daily,

Îro pîla herî baş rojeke xwe digire

slowly losing capacity until they finally die.

û hêdî hêdî temenê wê xilas dibe.

So why does this happen,

Gelo çima dema ku pîl nû be,

and how do our batteries even store so much charge in the first place?

şarza wê behtir xwe digire?

It all started in the 1780s with two Italian scientists,

Hemû tişt di 1780yî de bi du zanistên Îtalyan re dest pê kir,

Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta,

Luigi Galvani û Alessandro Volta

and a frog.

û beq.

Legend has it that as Galvani was studying a frog's leg,

Dibêjin rojekê dema Galvani bi alaveke hesinî

he brushed a metal instrument up against one of its nerves,

li sînîrê lingê beqê xist,

making the leg muscles jerk.

dît ku lingê beqê dilebite.

Galvani called this animal electricity,

Galvani ji vê re ''elektrîka ajalan'' dibêje.

believing that a type of electricity was stored in the very stuff of life.

Bawer dike ev şiklê elektrîk êdi giyaneweran de heye.

But Volta disagreed,

Lê Volta vê yekê napejirîne,

arguing that it was the metal itself that made the leg twitch.

dibêje hesinî lingê beqê lebitand.

The debate was eventually settled with Volta's groundbreaking experiment.

Ev nîqaş dibe sedema xebata bi nav û deng a Volta.

He tested his idea with a stack of alternating layers of zinc and copper,

Kaxizeke ava şor lêkirî datîne

separated by paper or cloth soaked in a salt water solution.

navbera lewheyen çînko û baqir.

What happened in Volta's cell is something chemists now call oxidation and reduction.

Tişta ku piştre qewimî, oksîdasyon û reduksîyon bû.

The zinc oxidizes, which means it loses electrons,

Çînko elektronan dide (oksîdasyon),

which are, in turn, gained by the ions in the water in a process called reduction,

ava şor wan elektronan hildigire(redûksîyon),

producing hydrogen gas.

di dawiyê de hîdrojên çêdibe.

Volta would have been shocked to learn that last bit.

Volta matmayî dibe.

He thought the reaction was happening in the copper,

Ew dibêje qey, reaksîyon ne bi avê re,

rather than the solution.

bi baqirê re çêdibe.

None the less, we honor Volta's discovery today

Îro me navê Volta daye birîma elektrîkê

by naming our standard unit of electric potential "the volt."

û em wî wisa bi bîr tînin.''The volt''

This oxidation-reduction cycle creates a flow of electrons between two substances

Bi oksidasyon-redûksîyon re koça elektronan çêdibe û

and if you hook a lightbulb or vacuum cleaner up between the two,

ku tu lambaya xwe bi vê pergalê ve girê bidî

dê pêkeve.

you'll give it power.

Ji 1700î heta niha zanyaran pîl bi peş xistin.

Since the 1700s, scientists have improved on Volta's design.

They've replaced the chemical solution with dry cells filled with chemical paste,

Niha li şûna ava şor hevîrê kimyevî xistin nava pîlê

lê bi heman pergalê dixebite.

but the principle is the same.

A metal oxidizes, sending electrons to do some work

Metal elektron dişîne ji bo xebatê(oksîdasyon)

before they are regained by a substance being reduced.

lê tiştek nakeve şûna wan.

But any battery has a finite supply of metal,

Dema ku elektronên metalê xilas dibin

and once most of it has oxidized, the battery dies.

temenê pîlê bi dawî dibe.

So rechargeable batteries give us a temporary solution to this problem

Pîlên ku disa tije dibin vê pirsgirêkê çareser dikin.

by making the oxidation-reduction process reversible.

Çunkî xeleka oksîdasyon-redaksîyonê vajî jî dizîvire.

Electrons can flow back in the opposite direction

Bi barkirina elektrîkê

with the application of electricity.

elektron berevajî vedigerin.

Plugging in a charger draws the electricity from a wall outlet

Ku em pîlê bi elektîrika prîzê girê bidin

that drives the reaction to regenerate the metal,

elektronên ku ji metal koç kirin

making more electrons available for oxidation the next time you need them.

dîsa vedigerin metalê û pîl disa tije dibe.

But even rechargeable batteries don't last forever.

Lê pîlên tên tijekirin jî ne bêdawî ne.

Over time, the repetition of this process causes imperfections

Roj bi roj ev metal xira dibe,

and irregularities in the metal's surface that prevent it from oxidizing properly.

nahêle dîsa bê tijekirin.

The electrons are no longer available to flow through a circuit

Elektron hew dikarin vajî vegerin

and the battery dies.

û ev cureya pîlan jî dimirin.

Some everyday rechargeable batteries

Îro ev pîlên ku tên tijekirin

will die after only hundreds of discharge-recharge cycles,

piştî tijekirina sed caran, dimirin

while newer, advanced batteries can survive and function for thousands.

lê pîlên baştir heta hezar caran jî namirin.

Batteries of the future may be light, thin sheets

Pîlên pêşerojê belkî siviktir bin,

that operate on the principles of quantum physics

û bi fîzîka kuantum bixebitin

and last for hundreds of thousands of charge cycles.

temenê wan jî gelek dirêjtir be.

But until scientists find a way to take advantage of motion

Lê heta zanyar ji bo tijekirina pîlan rê yekê din bibînin

to recharge your cell battery, like cars do,

divê wek ya erebeyan,

or fit solar panels somewhere on your device,

an wek lewhayê rojê

plugging your charger into the wall,

an jî bi elektrîkê

rather than expending one battery to charge another

hûn pîlên xwe tije bikin.

is your best bet to forestall that fatal "bleep."

Nexwe pîla we dê xilas bibe.

[Wergêr: Enan û Xulamê Mîr]