Capacitors

Capacitors
• A capacitor is a device
which is used to store
electrical charge
• Effectively, any capacitor
consists of a pair of
conducting plates
separated by an
insulator.
• The insulator is called a
dielectric and is often
air, paper or oil.
Capacitor Types
 Question
1. Why does one plate in a
capacitor becomes positively
charge and the other is
negatively charge?
2. What will happen to the
capacitance if we increase
the voltage?
 Question
3. How we can increase the
capacitance of a capacitor?
 Some Applications
• Energy storage
• Motor starters
• Radio Tuning
• Power conditioner
 Capacitance

• The measure of Q
C
the extent to V
which a
C= capacitance (unit
capacitor can farad (F))
store charge Q = the magnitude of the
charge on one plate (unit
coulombs (C))
V = the p.d. between the
plates ( unit volts (V))
 Example
• Determine the
amount of C = Q/V
charge stored on 4x10-6 = Q/12
either plate of a
capacitor (4x10-
Q = 48x10-6C
6
F) when
connected across
a 12 volt battery.
 Capacitors and resistors
compared
capacitors resistors

1 1 1 1 R  R1  R2  R3
Series connection   
C C1 C2 C3

Parallel connection C  C1  C2  C3
 Example 1
Find the total capacitance for three
capacitors connected in series, given their
individual capacitances are 1.000, 5.000,
and 8.000 µF.

Answer: 0.75 µF
Example 2
 Conceptual Question

If you wish to store a large

amount of energy in a capacitor
bank, would you connect
capacitors in series or parallel?
Explain.
Why capacitors are
important?