Each source floating around the phone — screen panel, GPS satellite, radio tower and CPU chip — emits a stream of energy motes toward the battery cell whenever its load is active. The rate motes leave a source is driven directly by that source's real instantaneous current draw in milliamps, so a brighter screen or a heavier CPU load visibly thickens its stream. Underneath the visualization the same physical accounting as any battery gauge runs every frame: currents sum, and the sum drains the cell's real milliamp‑hour capacity over simulated time.
draw(mA) = base + screen(bright) + gps + radio(signal) + cpu(load)
radio(signal) = 90 + (100 − signal%)·2.2 ← weak signal costs more power
d(charge_mAh)/dt(h) = −draw(mA)
- Signal strength — a real cellular-radio effect: the modem raises transmit power to hold a link when the signal is weak, so a poor connection can more than triple the radio's draw versus full bars.
- Screen / CPU load — brightness and background-processing sliders scale their source's mote emission rate exactly as they scale its mA draw.
- Battery cell — its height and color track state of charge in real time: green above 40%, amber down to 15%, red near empty, and it stops accepting motes once depleted.
- Drag to orbit the phone; the mote streams make the otherwise invisible power budget spatial — the source with the fattest, fastest stream is the one worth turning off first to extend runtime.
Real-world relevance: signal-dependent radio power is why battery life visibly drops in weak-coverage areas even with identical screen-on time — the same effect this simulator lets you dial in directly.