Would anyone kindly explain me the hydraulic analogy for the working of a capacitor w.r.t the article of wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor... Help!!
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The analogy of a system of water pipes to represent an electrical circuit is well established and actually very useful, especially at elementary schools. Pressure = voltage and rate of water flow = current. Switches can be modelled as valves and resistors as restrictions in the pipe. Anyhow, the hydraulic analogy of a capacitor can be though of as a rubber membrane that exerts a pressure proportional to the amount it's been stretched i.e. how much water you've pumped into it: $$ \text{Pressure} = \frac{\text{vol of water}}{K} $$ for some constant $K$. This has an obvious similarity to the equation for the voltage on a capacitor: $$ V = \frac{Q}{C} $$ where the charge $Q$ is represented by the volume of water and the constant $K$ represents the capacitance. |
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