Electronics

Properties

A capacitor of C farads with V volts across its terminals will contain Q coulombs of stored charge.

Q = CV

The energy stored in a capacitor is equal to the work done to charge it,

U = ¹/₂CV²,

where stored energy U is in joules.

Symbols

In Series

In Parallel

Notes

5RC Rule of Thumb:  A capacitor charges or decays to within 1% of its final value in 5 time constants.

The Time Constant, t seconds, of an RC circuit is the product of its resistance, R ohms, and capacitance, C farads,

t = RC.

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