Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
Can you please tell me the symbols for capacitors, example what symbol is for microfarad, Picofarad etc.etc. pretty please.. got a bunch of capacitors, and can't work out which one to use
Okay, these are just from memory, I can't remember which one is which
Farad = F (Uncommon, only used in high capacity projects that require am extremely large amount of discharge)
Millifarad = uF, or mF (Can't remember)
Picofarad = pF
Microfarad = mF, or uF (Can't remember)
Those are the only units of measurement I can remember, at least the only ones you can find anyway.
mmm it Microfarad i need to use , says enter Microfarad in the calculator to work out the timing... i have a 47uf capcitor just wondering if thats the right one hehe
Okay it's trying to tell me that uF is nanofarads, which doesn't make sense, because if I remember correct the uF marking is to distinguish between Micro and Milli Farads on the capacitor... now my head hurts...
im trying to make this you see **broken link removed** the LM555 - ASTABLE OSCILLATOR CALCULATOR
on the page, just trying to work out what capacitors i have, have 1,600 resistors hehe bought a pack, but only have limited types of capacitors
Most of the time capacitance is referenced to microfarads (uF)
1 microfarad =1 millionth of a farad = 1 uF = .000001 Farad
Then you have your nanofarads and picofarads too.
So when a circuit calls for .01 cap. it usually means .01 microfarad. (.00000001 uF)
Hope it helps a little
Thought I might just give you some info about prefixes of units. Sorry if this confuses any not so mathematically minded people.
I have use the ^ notation to indicate indices so 10^2 is 10 squared and 10^-3 is 10 to the power of -3.
Pico (p)
10^-12
0.000000000001
Nano (n)
10^-9
0.000000001
Micro (u)*
10^-6
0.000001
Milli (m)
10^-3
0.001
Centri (c)
10^-2
0.01
Deci
10^-1
0.1
Deka
10^1
10
Hekto
10^2
100
Kilo (k)
10^3
1 000
Myriad
10^4
10 000
Mega (M)
10^6
100 000
Giga (G)
10^9
100 000 000
Tera (T)
10^13
100 000 000 000
*actually a u with long leading tail but can't get it to work on the forum. It is the lower case Greek letter Mu, which is the Greek equivalent of the English letter M.
to use the table just multiply your value by the corresponding multiplier to get it to non-scaled units.
So if you have a 20nF capacitor you also have a 0.00000002F or a 20x10^-9F capacitor (you can see why they use the short hand). Or if you have a 80mH inductor you also have a 80x10^-3H or a 0.08H inductor.
Most scientific calculators should also have a button called EXP or E or EE which makes this converting a whole lot easier.
Engineers almost always use indices to the power of 3 ie. milli, micro, mega, giga
Please correct me if I got anything wrong.
P.S. I did have a nice table but the forum didn't alow for anymore then 1 space between letters
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.