CAPACITORS (C)

CAPACITORS store electric charge and filter circuits. They come in lots of different shapes and sizes. We will be using unpolarized capacitors for our projects, which are less than 1uF and can be connected either way.

CAPACITANCE is a capacitors ability to store charge, measured in farads (F). Usually very small amounts of farads are used, micorfarads (uF), nanofarads(nF), and picofarads(pF).

1F=1,000,000uF

1uF=1000nF

1nF=1000pF

Capacitors are labeled in several different ways. The larger polarized capacitors (greater than 1uF) have the capacitance written on them. Unpolarized capacitors use a number code:

1. FIRST DIGIT
2. SECOND DIGIT
3. NUMBER OF ZEROS TO GIVE CAPACITANCE IN pF
4. TOLERANCE (J, K or M for ±5%, ±10% and ±20%)

If there is a K, there is no multiplication, that is the actual value of pF. So a capacitor that says "10K" would be 10,000pF. The K can also be used in place of the decimal without changing meaning, so 1K5 would be 1.5KpF or 1500pF. The example of 104M is 0.1uF. (100,000pF = 100nF =0.1uF)
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