Right... We are talking standard PCB mount radial electrolytics.
Capacitors play a critical role in electronics so they will NEVER go away. They pass AC and block DC.
Capacitors act as 0 ohms resistance to an AC waveform. while DC is infinite. This is an IDEAL capacitor BTW. Any real capacitor will not be 0 ohm, itll be whatever its ESR rating is. For example, if a capacitor reads 2 Ohms ESR, it means it will read 2 ohms reactance of an AC signal.
This property allows them to make excellent filters. Because again, if a capacitor is put in parallel with an AC signal source, or rectified AC, it appears as 0 ohms. (or its ESR). So basically it shorts the AC to itself, but it leaves the DC property alone. hence why you get a smooth signal at the other end.
This is why ESR plays a huge roll, the worse the ESR, the higher the resistance of the cap is on an AC load. so if the ESR is 30 ohms, it wont do as good of a job for filtering than if it had 2 ohms.
Of course, they have other properties as well especially needed for other circuits, like RC time constants, etc. But i decided to express the most important property. Aside from the actual capacitance itself.
Capacitors play a critical role in electronics so they will NEVER go away. They pass AC and block DC.
Capacitors act as 0 ohms resistance to an AC waveform. while DC is infinite. This is an IDEAL capacitor BTW. Any real capacitor will not be 0 ohm, itll be whatever its ESR rating is. For example, if a capacitor reads 2 Ohms ESR, it means it will read 2 ohms reactance of an AC signal.
This property allows them to make excellent filters. Because again, if a capacitor is put in parallel with an AC signal source, or rectified AC, it appears as 0 ohms. (or its ESR). So basically it shorts the AC to itself, but it leaves the DC property alone. hence why you get a smooth signal at the other end.
This is why ESR plays a huge roll, the worse the ESR, the higher the resistance of the cap is on an AC load. so if the ESR is 30 ohms, it wont do as good of a job for filtering than if it had 2 ohms.
Of course, they have other properties as well especially needed for other circuits, like RC time constants, etc. But i decided to express the most important property. Aside from the actual capacitance itself.