Capacitance (T&M)

The Capacitance 4 hour PDH Time & Monitored online course is a part of the Electrical category courses. This courses provide guidance on use of capacitor devices and the theory behind. Inductance is the property of a coil that causes electrical energy to be stored in a magnetic field about the coil. The energy is stored in such a way as to oppose any change in current. Capacitance is similar to inductance because it also causes a storage of energy. A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in anelectrostatic field. The energy is stored in such a way as to oppose any change in voltage. This course also explains how capacitance opposes a change in voltage.

This course is based on Chapter 3 of Module 2, “Capacitance” of the Navy Electricity and Electronic Training Series (NAVEDTRA 14174),.

This course is intended for use by electrical engineers, design and construction professionals, students and others interested in learning about basic electrical theory.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• State four characteristics of electrostatic lines of force
• State the effect that an electrostatic field has on a charged particle
• State the basic parts of a capacitor
• State factors that affect the value of capacitance
• Given the dielectric constant and the area of and the distance between the plates of a capacitor, solve for capacitance
• State two types of power losses associated with capacitors
• Define the term “working voltage” of a capacitor, and compute the working voltage of a capacitor
• State what happens to the electrons in a capacitor when the capacitor is charging and when it is discharging
• State the relationship between voltage and time in an RC circuit when the circuit is charging and discharging
• State the relationship between the voltage drop across a resistor and the source voltage in an RC circuit
• Given the component values of an RC circuit, compute the RC time constant
• Use the universal time constant chart to determine the value of an unknown capacitor in an RC circuit
• Calculate the value of total capacitance in a circuit containing capacitors of known value in series.
• Calculate the value of total capacitance in a circuit containing capacitors of known value in parallel
• State the difference between different types of capacitors.
• Determine the electrical values of capacitors using the color code