the.com/capacitor
a patient little battery that hoards lightning and gives it all back in one breath
means An electrical component that stores energy in an electric field between two conductive plates, releasing it quickly when needed.
from From Latin 'capax,' meaning 'able to hold,' from 'capere,' 'to take or grasp' — the same root that gives us 'capable,' 'capacity,' and 'capture.' The '-or' suffix marks it as the thing that does the holding. The device was long called a 'condenser,' but 'capacitor' won out in the 20th century to emphasize what it truly does: it holds charge rather than condensing it.
- discharge speed
- can dump stored energy in microseconds
- camera flash
- powers that blinding pop you hate
- holds charge
- can shock you long after unplugging
- oldest design
- the Leyden jar dates to 1745
- no chemistry
- stores energy in a field, not reactions
leyden jar — first electrical capacitor, invented 1745 by ewald georg von kleist and independently by pieter van musschenbroek
itaipu dam reservoir — largest capacitor-like energy storage in hydroelectric systems, paraguay-brazil border, stores 29 billion cubic meters of water