I need i for a School Project, but I don’t quite understand when I search on google
In: Technology
As electricity is difficult to visualise, it can be helpful to imagine a capacitor as a balloon sealed across a water pipe.
When you turn on the water then the balloon will begin to fill – like charging a capacitor. In a capacitor this charge is held using two different plates with a vacuum or dielectric material between them. The electrical field between the two means both plates will have equal and opposite charges.
Like in a balloon, current will continue to flow through the circuit – water continues to flow down the pipe. However, the progress of the water (or electrons in a circuit) are held back by the balloon/gap between plates.
At some stage the balloon bursts – or, in a capacitor the difference in charge becomes to great and the electricity travels across the vacuum/dielectric material, providing a boost of power greater than which could normally be provided by the circuit. This can be useful for things like compressors, motors, microwaves etc which require a larger starting current than it required to continuously run them.
This is also why capacitors retain charge after the circuit is disconnected from the power source, which can lead to shocks when touching even unplugged electronics.
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