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Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
What is a capacitor?
A capacitor is simply an device that is composed of two metal conductors that are separated by an insulator. The insulator is called a dielectric. Fig 1 below shows a simplified version of a capacitor.
Fig 1
In fig 2 below two metal foils are separated by a paper dielectric. The three are them are then rolled as shown.
Fig 2
The fig 3 below shows a capacitor as sold commercially. It is a capsule that contains the rolled up aluminium foils.
Fig 3
The two plates are then connected to a power supply. The positive plate is connected to the positive terminal while the other negative plate is connected to the negative terminal as shown in fig 4 below.
Fig 5
After the capacitor is connected to the power supply, the capacitor will be charged by the power supply. That is charges will accumulate on the two plates. Positive charges will accumulate on the positive plate of the capacitor while negative charges will accumulate on the negative plate of the capacitor. The charges on the two plates will create an electric field between the two plates where the energy will be stored in the form of electric potential energy.
The fig 6 below shows a capacitor whose terminals are connected to a light bulb.
When this happens the energy stored in the capacitor will be released i.e is “discharged” into the bulb.
Fig 6
Hence a capacitor can be simply said to be an electronic device that stores charges. It is used in rectification circuits that changes alternating current to direct current, in tuning circuits and in filter circuits to filter out direct current.
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