5: Capacitors
- Page ID
- 5444
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- 5.1: Introduction
- A capacitor consists of two metal plates separated by a nonconducting medium (known as the dielectric medium or simply the dielectric) or by a vacuum.
- 5.5: Capacitors in Parallel
- For capacitors in parallel, the potential difference is the same across each, and the total charge is the sum of the charges on the individual capacitor.
- 5.6: Capacitors in Series
- The potential difference across the system of capacitors in series is the sum of the potential differences across the individual capacitances.
- 5.7: Delta-Star Transform
- We can make a delta-star transform with capacitors.
- 5.20: Real Capacitors
- Real capacitors can vary from huge metal plates suspended in oil to the tiny cylindrical components seen inside a radio. A great deal of information about them is available on the Web and from manufacturers’ catalogs, and I only make the briefest remarks here.
Thumbnail: Capacitors connected in series. The magnitude of the charge on each plate is Q. (CC BY-SA 3.0; OpenSTAX).