[ssl-3]

FYI: mA, not mAh.

milliAmps (mA): This is a measure of current flow. Think of it like the flow rate of water through a hose. It's the same kind of unit as something like liters-per-minute is: Where mA is a measure of electrical current flow through a wire (or a device or whatever), liters-per-minute is similarly a measure of the flow of water through a pipe (or consumed, or whatever).

milliAmp-hours (mAh): This measures how much current a something like a battery can supply over time. Imagine it as the total volume of water a hose can deliver if left on for an hour. If a battery is rated at 1000 mAh, it means it can provide a current of 1000 milliamps for one hour, or 500 milliamps for two hours, and so on. To use another water analogy, mAh is like describing the volume of water that is inside of a bucket.

The terms are not interchangeable.

[suprjami]

I understand these things.

If a Raspberry Pi draws 200 mA for one hour, I think it's reasonable to say it has drawn 200 mAh.

[ssl-3]

It is not reasonable, because you did not specify enough information for the reader to draw that conclusion.

> Pi 2 and 3 typically sit at 200 mAh and 230 mAh

200mAh? Over the course of an hour? A day? A fortnight? Just one time, to kickstart the internal perpetual particle accelerator and continue infinitely without additional input? The phraseology used could have specified this information, but it did not do so.

One may wish these units would mean something other than what they do mean, but reality is simply not that way.

We aren't generally free to invent our own scientific nomenclature, or at least we aren't free to do so if effective and meaningful communication is a goal.