Capacitors in d.c. and a.c. circuits

Set up the following circuits.

These circuits show that capacitors stop d.c. but allow a.c. to pass.

Capacitors are used in timing circuits, filter circuits (for separating signals of different frequencies) and in any situation in which charge must be stored e.g. some computer memories.

• Capacitors (also called condensers)
• Experiments to show what capacitors do