# What does current draw mean for the [closed]

Does this mean that the battery only outputs current equal to the amount of current draw? I always thought that batteries outputted a constant output, but apparently after some research I found this to be false. Can someone help explain?

UPDATE What I mean is that if I have a load that requires 100ma and then I get a battery that releases 150mAh, what does that mean? Does the battery always give 150mA or does that mean that the load only draws 100mA from the 150mA battery

## closed as unclear what you're asking by Olin Lathrop, Matt Young, nidhin, Daniel Grillo, PeterJJan 16 '15 at 18:40

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• Are you familiar with things like ohms law? – PlasmaHH Jan 16 '15 at 13:42
• Yes. I understand that Current, Resistance, and Voltage are interrelated in electricity and electromagnetism. – Jdude2345 Jan 16 '15 at 13:52
• The milliamp hour rating gives you an idea of how much total power a battery can provide - literally, current * time. Also, that in conjunction with the "C" rating gives you an idea of high-load performance, for example a "20C" 500mAh battery might be useful for briefly powering a 20*.5 = 10 amp load (for 3 minutes), while a "10C" battery of the same capacity may have too much internal impedance to provide more than 5 amps without the voltage severely sagging. – Chris Stratton Jan 17 '15 at 21:05

A battery is considered to be a constant-voltage source and, as such, will output whatever current the load requires in accordance with Ohm's law: ${E = IR}$ , where E is the battery voltage in volts, I is the load current in amperes, and R is the load resistance in ohms.
In order to solve for the load current we can rearrange the formula like this: $I = \frac{E}{R}$ and, assuming a 12 volt battery and a 12 ohm load, we'll have:
$$I = \frac{E}{R} = \frac{12V}{12\Omega} = 1\ ampere$$