Help ram and clearing memory

[GalaxyS2]

Hi, sorry but I'm new to the android and have a question.

in task manager on the ram tab what does the clear memory button do? well I know it clears memory but is it memory that's been used up by apps / programs no longer in use? is it going to have any negative affect if I clear?

Thanks and sorry for the stupid question.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Not a stupid question at all!

To be perfectly honest I wouldn't bother clearing the RAM, I've not even come close to needing to clear RAM to do anything on this phone.

If you do clear RAM it achieves this by stopping active processes, that can be a problem - for example killing your Alarm app, killing clock widgets/battery widgets etc.