Audio Engineering

124 Chapter 4

Capacitors such as the electrolytic capacitor are polarity sensitive, which means that they
have to be connected in a certain way in the circuit. The electrolytic capacitor is a polarized
component, and markings on the body of this capacitor indicate the appropriate negative
and positive terminals. As a general rule, capacitors above and including 1 μ F in value are
usually polarized. Capacitance values for the components with larger values are marked
on the component’s body, as there is suffi cient space to print out the value in full; that is,
1 μ F will actually be printed on the body of the capacitor. The values of capacitors with
smaller values are represented with a unique numbering code. The system is similar to the
color coding used for resistors, except numbers are used instead of colors. There are three

0.05 uF

0.1 uF

0.1 uF 0.1 uF

0.1 uF

0.2 uF

Figure 4.4 : Capacitors in series and capacitors in parallel.

100 uF 100 uF

Axial lead

capacitor: leads

emerging from

both ends

Radial lead

capacitor: leads

emerging from the

same end

Figure 4.5 : Axial and radial capacitor types.