Electronics are becoming ever more prevalent in my uni course (I’m doing sound engineering). Knowing how your own equipment works and stuff is integral but what is a capacitor. I failed physics in school almost. What does it do. Help.
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A capacitor stores electric charge.
– A capacitor near the + and – terminals of a component helps smooth voltage drops or spikes when that component changes its electrical demand (e.g. switching parts of itself on or off).
– A capacitor can be used to filter out certain frequencies, either by itself or as part of a larger filter with multiple components.
Capacitance is how “big” a capacitor’s “bucket” for storing charge is. Capacitance is measured in Farads (F) (named after Michael Faraday). But for most uses that’s a pretty huge unit, so you more commonly see capacitors rated in uF, nF or pF (microfarad, nanofarad, or picofarad, meaning millionth, billionth or trillionth of a farad).
Capacitors can charge or discharge very quickly. This makes them useful, but it also means they have a bit more risk of shock than batteries. If you’re actually physically building an electronic device with capacitors, for anything with a capacitance of uF or larger you should probably do some basic safety precautions:
– Add a resistor between the capacitor’s terminals to drain its charge over time
– Touch both terminals with a screwdriver to discharge it before putting your fingers anywhere near it
– Only work with low voltages
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