Prominent roles of capacitors in electronic circuits are charging and discharging.To know capacitor's charging, practical explanation is needed.Power source,capacitor and resistor are essential in this practice.
One end of capacitor is connected to power source and other end is connected with resistor. Settings of multimeter is changed to voltage measurements. Now power is turned on. Voltage between the terminals of capacitor are noted by multimeter. It is noted that voltage on capacitor increases slowly because resistor used here increasing the time taken for charging.
After the particular time charge on capacitor will be approximately equal to voltage from power source.To discharge capacitor, power source is replaced with a wire. Now votage between terminals of capacitor is noted. The voltage continously drops and finally it reaches zero voltage.
The value of capacitors can be measured by changing the settings in multimeter to capacitance mode.If capacitors are connected serially in a circuit , equivalent capacitance can be calculated as follows
1 /Ceq = 1 /C1 + 1 /C2 +· · · · · · + 1 /Cn
If capacitors are connected parallel, equivalent capacitance of the circuit is obtained by adding all capacitance of capacitors.
Ceq = C1 + C2 + · · · · · · + Cn
Variable capacitors ,super capacitors and electrolytic capacitors are the types of capacitors.