[Fwd: Re: capacitors don't store charge]

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: [Fwd: Re: capacitors don't store charge]
• From: Anthony DeCarmine <tdecarm-at-mail.ims.uconn.edu> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
• Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 20:23:17 -0600
• Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
• Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

I agree that many of the commonly used models to describe many things 
- not only those of electrical nature - need to go. Personnally, I 
think of items like capacitors as "gradient keepers". Using the 
hydraulic analogy (thanks, Bill) i see it as a dam or levy - water may 
build up behind the obstruction until it spills over (dielectric 
breakdown?) and continues to flow, albeit with a stored potential. A 
leakage resistance could be viewed as a bypass channel at the base of 
the dam. A spillway/floodgate?

Another similarity might be seen in the item known as a flow damper. 
Used to smooth out the pulses from pumps such that the flow to the 
(presumably sensitive) process would be free of imposed higher 
frequency ripple. Kinda like the big caps used to smooth out voltage 
ripple in power supply? A further point for the analogy is that such a 
damper usually uses a gas volume as the buffer. Similar to the use of 
a dielectric...a different substance is used to get the properties not 
normally available to the conducter.

But, I babble on...

Tony

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