Capacitors
A capacitor is a two-terminal component that has the ability to store electrical energy; they can be compared to a fully charged electric battery. A capacitor only stores charge for a very small time in an electric field. A capacitor's capacity or capacitance (the ability of the component to store charge) is measured in Farad (F), named after Michael Faraday. Capacitance is defined as the ratio of electric charge (Q) on each conductor to the potential difference (V) between both. You can think of a capacitor as a stretchable membrane (like a balloon or spandex) that is kept between the two ends of a water pipe. Please refer to the following diagram:
The pump in the system can be compared to a battery. Initially, the membrane is not stretched, hence the membrane, by itself, has no force in it. As the water starts flowing from the pump, it pushes against the membrane and starts stretching it. While the membrane is stretching, it will push the water on the other side to move a little making it look like water is flowing.
When the membrane reaches its maximum limit, it will exert a pressure equal to the pump’s pressure. At this point, the water flow will stop . This is exactly how capacitors work in electric circuits as well. The image below shows what a capacitor looks like:
