Re: general cap questions

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <davep-at-quik-dot-com>

> What are farads?

	The thing between the hair and the eyes...
	Ahemmmmmm.

> I know that they are a measure of capacitance, but what does
> that mean?

	Think of a cap as a bucket into which electricity
	can be dumped.  Big farads == big bucket.
	Turns out a 'farad' is an improbably large unit
	for most practical work )tho i recently gave
	away a farad: 6 160,000mfd at 24 VDC, but i
	digress.(

	IIR, a farad is able to hold 1 coulomb of
	charge. (maybe wrong).  Not useful, anyway.

> Is that how often they discharge,

	Nope.  That depends on other factors in the cap,
	and on the surrounding circuitry.

> how much voltage they can take,

	Nope.  Thats set by the dielectric, and plate
	spacing.
	One can have 1 farad at 1v, or at 100V.

> or what?

	cf above for an informal definition.

 

	best
	dwp

...the net of a million lies...
	Vernor Vinge
There are Many Web Sites which Say Many Things.
	-me