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Capacitors are electronic devices which are primarily used for storing electrical charge.You can use capacitors for many applications including timer circuits and other situations where you may need to store electrical charge or smoothing noisy power supplies.
Capacitors come in many different forms and can be either polarised or non polarised. Different types of capacitors can look very different and have a multitude of circuit symbols (Fig 1).
Capacitors come in many different forms and can be either polarised or non polarised. Different types of capacitors can look very different and have a multitude of circuit symbols (Fig 1).
The value of a capacitor (measured in Farads F) is usually written on it but can also be measured using a multimeter by setting it to the correct function (Fig 2).
Capacitors are similar to batteries to some extent as they both store electrical charge. The difference is that a capacitor can dump all of its charge quickly whereas a battery takes much longer to fully discharge. For example, Capacitors are used in lasers to create a ‘Flash’ of energy.
Capacitors can also be used in a DC circuit to smooth out spikes of voltage as a capacitor can smooth out the ripples by filling in valleys and absorbing the peaks, as such they are sometimes seen across the terminals of a DC motor to smooth out the motor output.
To define capacitance we use the formulae in Fig 3:
Capacitance C, in farads, equals charge Q in coulombs, divided by voltage in volts.
If a capacitor has a higher value it would store more charge when connected to the same battery because capacitance is measured in coulombs per volt, therefore representing how many coulombs of charge will be stored per volt.
Capacitors can also be used in a DC circuit to smooth out spikes of voltage as a capacitor can smooth out the ripples by filling in valleys and absorbing the peaks, as such they are sometimes seen across the terminals of a DC motor to smooth out the motor output.
To define capacitance we use the formulae in Fig 3:
Capacitance C, in farads, equals charge Q in coulombs, divided by voltage in volts.
If a capacitor has a higher value it would store more charge when connected to the same battery because capacitance is measured in coulombs per volt, therefore representing how many coulombs of charge will be stored per volt.
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