AC1 Fundamentals Unit 6 – Capacitance
UNIT 6 – CAPACITANCE
UNIT OBJECTIVE
At the completion of this unit, you will be able to describe the effect of capacitance on a circuit
by using an oscilloscope.
UNIT FUNDAMENTALS
Suppose two metal plates separated by an insulating material were placed in close proximity to
one another. If a voltage were applied to the plates, a charge would develop between them.
Even if the voltage source were removed, the charge would still remain. The ability to store
electric charge is called capacitance (C). An electrical component with a predicted measure of
capacitance is a capacitor.
This is the symbol for a capacitor as shown on a schematic. Capacitors are usually labeled with
the capital letter C.
The farad (F)is the unit of measure for capacitance. A farad equals one coulomb of charge
stored at a potential of one volt. The farad, however, is a rather large value for most applications,
so more common capacitor values are in the picofarad (pF) and microfarad (μF) ranges.