kapasitiviteetti

Kapasitiviteetti is a Finnish term that translates to capacitance in English. It is a fundamental property of an electrical component known as a capacitor. Capacitance quantifies the ability of a capacitor to store electric charge. More precisely, it is defined as the ratio of the electric charge stored on each conductor to the difference in electric potential between them. The standard unit of capacitance is the farad (F), named after English physicist Michael Faraday. One farad is a very large unit, so in practice, smaller units like microfarads (µF), nanofarads (nF), and picofarads (pF) are commonly used.

The capacitance of a capacitor depends on its physical characteristics, such as the area of the conductive plates, the distance between them, and the type of dielectric material separating the plates. A dielectric material is an electrical insulator that can be polarized by an applied electric field. Common dielectric materials include air, paper, ceramic, and plastic. A higher dielectric constant generally leads to a higher capacitance. Capacitors are essential components in a wide range of electronic circuits, serving purposes such as filtering, energy storage, timing, and signal coupling. They play a crucial role in smoothing out voltage fluctuations in power supplies and in resonant circuits for tuning radio frequencies.