An R-C circuit is a circuit containing a resistor and capacitor in series to a power source. Such circuits Find very important applications in various areas of science and in basic circuits which act as building blocks of modern technological devices.

It should be really helpful if we get comfortable with the terminologies charging and discharging of capacitors.

1. Charging of Capacitor: –

A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. In the hydraulic analogy, charge carriers lowing through a wire are analogous to water flowing through a pipe. A capacitor is like a rubber membrane sealed inside a pipe. Water molecules cannot pass through the membrane, but some water can move by stretching the membrane. The analogy clarifies a few aspects of capacitors:

• The low of current alters the charge on a capacitor, just as the low of water changes the position of the membrane. More specifically, the effect of an electric current is to increase the charge of one plate of the capacitor, and decrease the charge of the other plate by an equal amount. This is just like how, when water low moves the rubber membrane, it increases the amount of water on one side of the membrane, and decreases the amount of water on the other sid.
• The more a capacitor is charged, the larger its voltage drop; i.e., the more it “pushes back” against the charging current. This is analogous to the fact that the more a membrane is stretched, the more it pushes back on the water.
• • Current can low “through” a capacitor even though no individual electron can get from one side to the other. This is analogous to the fact that water can low through the pipe even though no water molecule can pass through the rubber membrane. Of course, the low cannot continue the same direction forever; the capacitor will experience dielectric breakdown, and analogously the membrane will eventually break.
  • The capacitance describes how much charge can be stored on one plate of a capacitor for a given “push” (voltage drop). A very stretchy, flexible membrane corresponds to a higher capacitance than a stiff membrane.
  • A charged-up capacitor is storing potential energy, analogously to a stretched membrane.
    
    
  • 2. Discharging of Capacitor: –

  Using hydraulic analogy only we can understand that when the capacitor is charged the membrane is stretched, but now if you allow the water to come out slowly and let the membrane relax, then it is called discharging of capacitor. In other words, when the charge on each of the plates becomes zero and the potential difference across its terminals drops to zero.