Anyone know why?

[Garno]

Batteries.

I suppose I need to say more than batteries.

With the AA or AAA and many other sizes I understand that the end with the nipple is the positive and the flat part is the negative.
Why oh why do we need to have a positive and a negative next to each other? why can't we have the springs on the same side next to each other?

Now would, I think, be a good time to mention that I have lost very little, if any, sleep over this and in my defence would like to point out that it has been a rather long lockdown.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Batteries in series join positive to negative. Is that not what you mean? Are we talking about 9v batteries? How would you know if they are flat if you couldn't put both terminals on your tongue?

My favourite is accidentally touching the +ive terminal on a car battery with a spanner when tightening something - always a suprise.

 

[MARK.B.]

If you can hang on a couple of hours, I will ask the wife - she knows everything

 

[minilathe22]

I think its because normally a device with say 4 x 1.5v batteries, doesnt want 1.5V, it wants 6V, which is easier to create with the batteries in a zigzag pattern, so its a cost saving. If all the batteries were the same way round, wires would be needed in a criss cross pattern to get 6V. I have a TV remote somewhere that takes 2 x aa batteries with the polarity the same way round, and it still works if you remove one battery which is handy.

It seems most devices are moving to built in rechargeable batteries with a micro/mini usb port for charging.

 

[Rorschach]

It seems most devices are moving to built in rechargeable batteries with a micro/mini usb port for charging.

Yes this becoming more common. I am starting to work out ways to do this for some of my portable devices. A single lithium cell puts out a voltage that is close enough to 2 x Alkaline or 3 x NiMh cells that in most cases you can do a straight swap, the small bit of extra voltage isn't an issue usually. I have a lot of lithium cells on hand and they have good capacity and if you don't need removable batteries you often can find space for more batteries. A USB charging board costs about 50p.