

When you turn on the power, an electric charge gradually builds up on the plates.

You can charge a capacitor simply by wiring it up into an electric circuit. (It takes time to charge a capacitor and that’s why you typically have to wait a little while.) Once the capacitor is fully charged, it can release all that energy in an instant through the flashbulb.

A capacitor attached to the flashbulb charges up for a few seconds using energy from your camera’s batteries. So suppose you’re taking a flash photograph and you need your camera to produce a huge burst of light in a fraction of a second. A capacitor usually expends its energy much more quickly - often in seconds. A battery uses chemicals to store electrical energy and release it very slowly through a circuit sometimes (a clock, for instance) it can take several years. Now it’s important to note that a capacitor is a like a battery in many ways, but it is not the same thing either. This oxide layer acts as the insulator of the capacitor.Ī solid, liquid, or gel electrolyte covers the surface of this oxide layer, acting as the negative plate of the capacitor (as shown by its shorter leg). The capacitor’s positive plate (as shown by the longer leg) is called an anode as it is made of a metal that forms an insulating oxide layer through anodization. The nonconducting insulator serves to enhance the capacitor’s charge storage capacity. The conductor may be a foil, thin film, sintered bead of metal, or an electrolyte. Capacitors guard the circuit against current spikes, so they are used to maintain stable potential in a circuit.Ī capacitor consists of at least one pair of electrical conductors often in the form of metallic plates or surfaces separated by an insulator (non-conductive material). Essentially, a capacitor is a two-terminal device that is used to store electric charge. It is a common electrical component that is used in electric circuits.
