ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about capacitors, which are widely used in electronic circuits. It discusses the concept of an electric field and the basic principles and use of capacitors. A charged body is said to produce an electric field in the space around it. The direction of the electric field at a point is defined as being the direction the force would be if a positive charge was placed at the point. The field can be visualized by drawing lines representing the directions of the field, these lines being called lines of force. For the dielectric in a capacitor, if the electric field becomes enough it can cause electrons to break free from the dielectric atoms and so render the dielectric conducting. The equivalent capacitance of parallel-connected capacitors is the sum of their individual capacitances. For two identical capacitors in parallel, the total capacitance is the sum of the individual capacitances and so the capacitance is doubled.
