Current flow in the circuit which has the capacitor........

[subbuindia]

Capacitor is nothing but two parallel conductors separated by an insulator material. So, how the current can flow in the circuit which has the capacitor?

 

[Pjdd]

Direct current does not flow through a capacitor. Or, to put it another way, a steady DC voltage cannot make current flow through a capacitor. Only a change of voltage can cause current to flow through it. AC is current or voltage that is changing constantly, which is why it can flow through a capacitor. Even then, it's not exactly like current flow through a wire or a resistor, but for most practical purposes, it behaves the same way.

 

[papunblg]

The current i(t) through any component in an electric circuit is defined as the rate of flow of a charge q(t) passing through it, but actual charges, electrons, cannot pass through the dielectric layer of a capacitor, rather an electron accumulates on the negative plate for each one that leaves the positive plate, resulting in an electron depletion and consequent positive charge on one electrode that is equal and opposite to the accumulated negative charge on the other. Thus the charge on the electrodes is equal to the integral of the current as well as proportional to the voltage
more Capacitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

---------- Post added at 19:51 ---------- Previous post was at 19:48 ----------

also
RC circuit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[yadavvlsi]

Current flow in capacitor is known as displacement current. Displacement current is a quantity that is defined in terms of the rate of change of electric displacement field. Displacement current has the units of electric current density, and it has an associated magnetic field just as actual currents do. However it is not an electric current of moving charges, but a time-varying electric field. In materials, there is also a contribution from the slight motion of charges bound in atoms, dielectric polarization.
Displacement current - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Capacitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charging a Capacitor
Capacitors - Charging

 

[luben111]

I can put the phenomena of capacitor in other words:

1. If you make a cut between the capacitor plates you'll find that no current is flowing there - doesn't matter do you apply DC or AC. It's logical - between plates there is staying dielectric and there are no free electrical charges to move.

2. In case you apply AC on the capacitor plates you can see that currents will flow trough the capacitor pins (but still no current is flowing between the electrode plates). Imagine the capacitor plate is a bottle - you can inject inside some additional air (and you increase the pressure in the bottle) or you can take away some air (and then you decrease the pressure inside the bottle) without changing the volume of the bottle. During the injecting/taking_away you will see some amount of air moving in/out (equivalent of currents) from the bottle.

The confusion comes when you don't ask the question - where exactly in the capacitors are flowing the currents.

 

[papunblg]

Sir luben111,
What a clear and simple explanation! Hats off to you sir.