Capacitors
A prototype for a capacitor is a parallel-plate capacitor. We can establish a potential difference across the two plates by connecting them to a battery.
The idea or purpose of a capacitor is to store charge so we define
Capacitance is measured in units of farads, in honor of Michael Faraday,
F = C / V one farad is one coulomb per volt
You already know that one coulomb is a great deal of charge. That means one farad is a very large capacitance. Therefore, many of the capacitors we encounter will have capacitances that are measured in microfarads,
1 F = 10 - 6 F
(c) Doug Davis, 2002; all rights reserved
Return to Ch 18, Electric Potential and Capacitors
