BharatNotes Capacitor
nounUsage in a UPSC answer
Just as a capacitor silently accumulates charge before discharging it in a sudden surge, decades of unaddressed agrarian distress can act as a social capacitor, storing latent grievances that erupt into mass agitation the moment a triggering policy is announced.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
capacitor (n), capacitors (n pl), capacitance (n), capacitive (adj), capacitor-based (adj compound)
Root
English capacity (from Latin capacitas = holding power) + agentive -or; term standardised in 1926 British Engineering Glossary
Etymology
From capacity + -or; the term replaced the older word condenser (coined by Alessandro Volta in 1782) following a recommendation in the 1926 British Standard Glossary of Terms in Electrical Engineering.
Memory Hook
"CAPACITY to store": a capacitor has the CAPACITY to hold electric charge, just as capere (Latin "to hold") is the root of capacity.
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
A component that stores energy in the electric field between two conducting plates separated by an insulating dielectric. The contrast with a battery is the point worth carrying: a capacitor stores energy physically as separated charge and can release almost all of it in an instant, whereas a battery stores it chemically and delivers it slowly, so capacitors offer high power with low energy density and batteries the reverse. That is exactly why a camera flash and a defibrillator use capacitors rather than batteries to deliver their pulse. Capacitance increases with plate area, decreases with the separation between plates, and increases when a dielectric is inserted. The circuit behaviour follows from the structure: because the plates are not connected, a capacitor blocks steady direct current while passing alternating current, which is what makes it useful for smoothing a rectifier's output and for coupling stages of a circuit.
Don’t Confuse It With
A capacitor stores energy in an electric field, an inductor stores it in a magnetic field, and a battery stores it chemically. Capacitance is the charge stored per unit voltage and is a property of the device, distinct from the charge actually held at any moment. The dielectric is the insulating material between the plates, and inserting one raises the capacitance. A capacitor blocks steady direct current while passing alternating current, which is the opposite of an inductor's behaviour.
Hindi Meaning
संधारित्र (sandhāritra); धारिता (dhāritā) for capacitance.
Common Questions
- What is the difference between a capacitor and a battery?
- A capacitor stores energy physically as separated charge and can discharge it almost instantly, while a battery stores energy chemically and releases it slowly over a much longer period.
- Why does a capacitor block DC but pass AC?
- Because its plates are separated by an insulator, no steady current can cross, but a continually reversing voltage keeps charging and discharging the plates, which allows alternating current to pass.
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