Capacitors at Work

Smoothing, sensing and storing

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Capacitors smooth rectified DC by storing charge between peaks.
• Touchscreens sense the capacitance change caused by a finger.
• Supercapacitors deliver energy quickly and last for millions of cycles.

Steps

1. Smoothing
2. Touchscreens
3. Defibrillator
4. Supercapacitor
5. Smoothing the ripple
6. Three time constants