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Why does a capacitor block DC but pass AC?

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Why does a capacitor block DC but pass AC?


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Gautham Ashok, Electrical Engineer
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More people should wonder why it does pass AC, rather than wondering
why it blocks DC! After all, a simple capacitor, represented in diagrams, has two
metallic plates in parallel separated by a small distance by air, a dielectric. By default,
current can't cross the dielectric, so that's simply why DC can't pass. So what about AC:
Actually when you say that a capacitor allows AC, it is true, but even in AC the
current doesn't actually pass "through" the capacitor(a dielectric is still
present).
Before I can explain that, let me clarify a common misconception: A capacitor does not
store charge. It stores energy. Of course, one plate of the capacitor, say the plate
connected to the negative terminal of a DC supply, will accumulate electrons,
accounting for negative charge. BUT here's what actually happens next:
First, Remember that the space between the plates is separated by the dielectric.
Therefore, these negative charge cannot pass through the dielectric itself, but the
plate connected to the positive terminal(which is metallic) will deplete an equal
amount of electrons, and that places a positive charge on that PLATE.
So actually there is no crossing over. Just a depletion in one plate as a
reaction to the accumulation in the other. Since there is not gain of
charge, the NET CHARGE IS ZERO.
Now after equal but opposite charge is depleted from the opposite plate the voltage
appearing across the capacitor is the DC source voltage. It's in an equilibrium and
stays like that, so it's an open circuit since there is a dielectric in between
(unless the voltage is so high that the dielectric breaks down).
Energy is stored in the electrostatic field. The only current that appears before the
Capacitor charges to the DC voltage level is the current that appears because of the
opposite plate depleting electrons. You'd have seen graphs with an exponential
increase in voltage till the DC level and an exponential drop in current to zero.
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So that clears blocking


formula Q=CV means.

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3/3/2016 9:36 PM

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