Capacitors Capacitance: Electrical Circuits
Capacitors Capacitance: Electrical Circuits
Capacitors Capacitance: Electrical Circuits
Introduction
Capacitors
Capacitance
Stored energy
Hydraulic model
Electrical circuits
DC sources
AC sources
Impedance
Displacement current
Networks
Series or parallel arrangements
Capacitor/inductor duality
Applications
Energy storage
Power factor correction
Filtering
Signal de-coupling
Noise filters, motor starters, and snubbers
Signal processing
Tuned circuits
Other applications
Sensing
Pulsed power and weapons
Hazards and safety
Capacitor
A capacitor is an electrical device that can store energy in the
electric field between a pair of closely spaced conductors
(called 'plates'). When current is applied to the capacitor,
electric charges of equal magnitude, but opposite polarity,
build up on each plate. Capacitors are used in electrical
circuits as energy-storage devices. They can also be used to
differentiate between high-frequency and low-frequency
signals and this makes the useful in electronic filters.
Capacitors are occasionally referred to as
condensers
. This is now considered an antiquated term. A capacitor
consists of two conductive electrodes, or plates, separated by
a dielectric.
Capacitance
When electric charge accumulates on the plates, an electric
field is created in the region between the plates that is
proportional to the amount of accumulated charge. This
electric field creates a potential difference
V = Ed
between the plates of this simple parallel-plate capacitor. The
capacitor's capacitance(C ) is a measure of the amount
of charge(Q) stored on each plate for a given potential
difference or voltage( V) which appears between the plates:
References