The pioneering years in the history of capacitors was a time when capacitors were used primarily for gaining an early understanding of electricity, predating the discovery even of the electron. It was ...

One of the most common parts to fail on a single-phase HVAC system is a run capacitor, so much so that we sometimes refer to junior techs as “capacitor changers.” While capacitors may be easy to ...

You can make all sorts of different types of inductors, but the most common type is cylindrical coil of wire---a solenoid. When current runs through the first loop, it creates a magnetic field that ...

Many power supplies use hold-up capacitors to keep enough energy at the full-wave or bridge rectifier output to supply a load when the rectified voltage drops and rises again at the next half-cycle of ...

Engineers designing power electronics find that capacitors are needed for several functions, from energy storage to filters and decoupling. Different capacitor types are available, that at first sight ...

Kelly has over 10 years of experience writing about home design and improvement for many prominent publications. She also spent several years working at a tech startup for an interior design game ...

A capacitor made out of the precious metal tantalum. The silver-gray tantalum beads, in the form of compacted powder, can store a lot of charge relative to their mass. This enables smaller capacitors ...