AA Battery Pole Reversal
It's called "cell reversal". It's most-common with rechargeable devices
using nicad or NiMH cells, but I also saw it in an HP calculator that used
alkaline N cells.
Here's what happens... One of the cells has significantly lower capacity
than the others. When it hits zero volts, the other cells are pumping
current through it /in reverse/. This causes the cell to charge up
backwards, with reversed polarity.
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