6.1 Introduction

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6.1 Introduction

So far we have limited our study to resistive circuits. In this chapter, we shall introduce two new and important passive linear circuit elements: the capacitor and the inductor. Unlike resistors, which dissipate ener gy, capacitors and inductors do not dissipate but store energy, which can be retrieved at a later time. F or this reason, capacitors and inductors are called storage elements.

The application of resistive circuits is quite limited. With the introduction of capacitors and inductors in this chapter , we will be able to analyze more important and practical circuits. Be assured that the circuit analysis techniques covered in Chapters 3 and 4 are equally applicable to circuits with capacitors and inductors.

We begin by introducing capacitors and describing how to combine them in series or in parallel. Later, we do the same for inductors. As typical applications, we explore how capacitors are combined with op amps to form integrators, differentiators, and analog computers.

Figure 6.1 A typical capacitor.