Working of Capacitor
The capacitor is a device that holds electrical energy as a form of electric charge. It is made up of two plates that are parallel to each other and are oppositely charged. The positive plates collect some charges and an equal amount of opposite charges is collected in the negative plate. As soon as the circuit is switched on the capacitor holds the energy in the form of the electric charge between the plates of the capacitor.
Switching the circuit off does not make the capacitor lose its charge thus it holds the electric energy as an electric charge between its plates.
The capacitance or the strength of a capacitor is measured in farads (F) unit that is named after famous English Physicist Michael Faraday. A farad is a very large unit of capacitance. Most capacitors are measured in microfarad, (µF), picofarad (pF), etc.
Supercapacitors are specially designed capacitors that can store very large amounts of electrical charges and have a capacitance of thousands of farads.
The parallel plate capacitor is shown in the image below.
Capacitance
Capacitance is defined as the capacity of any material to store electric charge. The substance that stores the electric charge is called a capacitor, i.e. the ability of the capacitor to hold the electric charge is called capacitance. It is denoted with the symbol C and is defined as the ratio of the electric charge stored inside a capacitor by the voltage applied.
Thus, any material that has a tendency to store electric charge is called a capacitor and the ability of the material to hold electric charge is called the capacitance of the material. In this article, we will learn about capacitance, its formula, capacitor, and others in detail.
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