Re: Capacitor terminology

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Herbert H. Gottlieb wrote:

> Also...in the second edition of the International Dictionary of
> Physics  and Electronics:
>
> "FARAD. A unit of capacitance, abreviation f or fd. The farad is 
> the capacitance of a capacitor (or condenser) which 
> acquires a charge of one coulomb when a steady potential difference of
  /\      /\   /\


It's EVERYWHERE!   There's no way to expunge "capacitors store charge"
from the literature.  If most students are like me, then even their
initially correct concepts will be crushed by the constant repetition of
the "capacitors store charge" mantra which spews from the American
technical culture.

If I could change things, I would have instructors give their students
some "defenses".  As well as making an effort to have them understand
capacitors, we could also show them specifically that capacitors DON'T
store charge.  Show them how to interpret the definition quoted above,
rather than letting them fall for the "charge that goes into a capacitor"
language.


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William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
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