Resistors & Capacitors

Resistors and capacitors are two of the most common

elements in electronic circuits. The resistor is a
component which, as the name indicates, introduces
opposition to electrical current into the circuit. Although
this seems counter-productive in a system, it is
desirable to have elements that conduct electricity
poorly (without completely halting the flow) since they
provide the opportunity to act as transducers and
transform electrical energy into another form of energy
such as light or heat.
Two of the most common groups of resistors are called
"wire wound" and "carbon composition", depending on
the material they are made of. A different type of
resistor is chosen when considering the amount of
current in the system: carbon composition resistors
(knowing that carbon is a highly resistive element)
handle lower current situations, and wire wound
resistors are used when high currents are involved.
The unit chosen for determining the amount of
resistance of a component is the Ohm (), named after
German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. It is a conventional
unit that describes the resistance of an element in a
circuit when the applied voltage is 1 volt and the
current is 1 ampere (as described in Ohm's law).
In a capacitor, the flow of electrons between two
conductors (ideally two plates) is actually interrupted in
its entirety by an insulating device. As soon as there are

positive and negative charges flowing from a voltage

source into each end of the capacitors, the component
charges up (the time it takes for it to charge being
determined by whether there are resistors in the circuit
path and by the component's capacitance value).
The conventional unit for capacitance is a "farad" (F),
which represents the capacity of a capacitor component
to store 1 Coulomb (6.28 billion billion electrons) of
charge when a potential of 1 volt is applied on the
positive terminal of the component.
Since the electrons cannot go from the positive end of
the capacitor to its negative end, the charge is stored in
the component. The capacitor works as a sort of
battery, although as soon as it is re-connected to a
circuit the charges dissipate.
The capacitance value of said capacitor is the same in
any circuit, and depends on: the area (A) of the two
plates it consists of; the distance (s) between said
plates; and the dielectric constant of the insulation
between those plates.
Another use for capacitors besides storing a small
amount of charge is filtering the signal that eventually
passes through it (withholding high frequency content
and letting low frequencies through).