It's 11:45 p.m. and you just finished working a double shift. It's late, you're tired and you have class in the morning. As you fumble for your car keys, you can't help but shiver. It's about tosnow．
You hop in your car and crank it up. Theengineturns over grudgingly but eventually starts. After warming up the engine for a minute, you begin your journey home. Just as the heater begins to remove the frosty conditions inside the car, the radio begins to cut out. Soon after, thedash lightsstart to dim ever so slightly, but you keep driving.
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Eventually, the radio and the heater quit altogether, and the comfortable warmth is slowly replaced by the outside chill. Yourheadlightsare the next thing to start flickering. Now you're getting worried. Only 15 more minutes and you're home.
But the headlights dim to the point of being dangerous and the unthinkable happens: the engine starts to miss. Less than 5 miles (8 kilometers) from home, your engine dies, along with everything else in the car. You coast to a stop on the side of the road and pull out yourcellphone．它死了,所以你把它插在呼吁帮助。Guess what? No power. It's past midnight, and you're stranded on the side of the road.
This is an example of an alternator breathing its last breath. Your first thought might have been that thebatterywas dying. In a sense, you would be right because the battery and the alternator are related.
