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6.5 Capacitor and Capacitance

 Description: 


  • Capacitance is the capacity or ability of a capacitor to store electrical energy.
  • Capacitor is a component to store and discharge energy.
  • The other name for capacitor is condenser.
Image shows different variants of Capacitor

Working:
  • The capacitor is made up of two close conductors (usually plates) that are separated by a dielectric material. The plates accumulate electric charge when connected to power source. Once the battery is connected, negative charges on the right side gets attracted towards the positive terminal of the battery and on the left side, negative charges gets repelled away from the negative terminal of the battery.
  • As the negative charges leaves the piece of metal in the right, it makes that piece of metal positively charged, and the piece on left becomes negatively charged. Both sides has same magnitude of charge. As the plate on the right becomes positively charged, the next electron gets confused where to move, whether to the positive terminal of the battery or the positive piece of the metal.
  • At this point this process stops. Then the accumulated charge remains there on the pieces of the metal. One plate accumulates positive charge and the other plate accumulates negative charge. The battery connected can also be removed still the accumulate charge remains the same.
Battery Vs Capacitor
  • Capacitors are commonly used in electronic circuits to store and release electrical energy quickly. May sound like a battery, but both has different characteristics and work differently.
  • Batteries convert chemical energy into electrical energy, while capacitors store electrical energy in an electric field. 
  • Batteries are best suited for applications that require a relatively constant output of energy over a longer period, while capacitors are best suited for applications that require the rapid discharge of energy over a shorter period.
  • Capacitor has less storage capacity and the charge and discharge of energy is fast whereas storage is more in battery and charge or discharge of energy is slow in batteries.
Other Info:
  • Capacitor with large capacitance can store more charge
  • Capacitor with small capacitance can store less charge
  • Denoted by ‘C’
  • Capacitance is the ratio between amount of electric charge stored on a conductor to a difference in electrical potential.
  • Capacitance (c) = CoulombVolt
  • Capacitance (c) = Charge stored on a capacitorVoltage across the capacitor 
  • SI unit of Capacitance = Farad
  • Symbol: 


Watch these videos for better understanding: 

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