Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Long-Life battery and clock
Message-ID: <1988Dec14.055002.6494@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1310017@hpcilzb.HP.COM> <6288@fluke.COM>
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 88 05:50:02 GMT

In article <6288@fluke.COM> strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes:
>I would recommend lithium-iodide cells--lots of them.  The shelf life is 20
>years to 80% of capacity.  After 100 years, the capacity will be down to 30%.

You mean, the *rated* capacity will be down to 30%.  What the actual
capacity will be is anyone's guess.  Extrapolating lifetimes by an order
of magnitude or more is a very chancy business for relatively new
technologies, especially ones involving chemical reactions.  Lots of
opportunities for stray side reactions in that length of time...
-- 
SunOSish, adj:  requiring      |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
32-bit bug numbers.            | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu