Question

How do you discharge a capacitor?

Answer 1

Capacitor:

1. The capacitor is a device that stores electrical charge as energy. Once the power source is removed, it can then be used to supply charge or energy.
2. Capacitance is the ability of a capacitor to store energy.

Charging and discharging of the capacitor:

1. The process of a capacitor being charged and discharged is crucial because a capacitor's capacity to forecast, control, and charge and discharge rates is what makes them valuable in electronic timing circuits.
2. It occurs when a voltage is applied across a capacitor and the potential cannot instantly increase to the applied value. The accumulation of additional charges tends to be repelled as the change on the terminals reaches its final value.
3. Therefore, the following are the variables that affect how quickly a capacitor can be charged or discharged:
4. The capacitors' capacitance and the circuit's resistance determine whether a capacitor is being charged or discharged.

Discharging of the circuit:

1. The capacitor continues to be fully charged at a time equal to five times constants, as long as a steady supply is applied. The energy that was gathered during the charging process will now remain on the plates of this fully charged capacitor eternally when it is unplugged from its DC battery supply, maintaining a constant voltage across its connecting terminals.
2. Now that we have an $RC$ discharging circuit, the capacitor would discharge back through the resistor,$R$, if the battery were to be replaced with a short circuit when the switch was closed. The voltage across the capacitor finally decays to zero as the capacitor continues to discharge and energy stored inside is released through current flowing through series resistors.