Capacitor vs condenser

[pixnum]

Can you tell me the difference between capacitor and condenser ?

Thank you,

Have a good day !

 

[Sceadwian]

There isn't one, they're the same thing.

 

[ericgibbs]

Can you tell me the difference between capacitor and condenser ?

In the early days of electrics the name 'condenser' was used, the modern and more acceptable name, 'capacitor' is used.

 

[Thunderchild]

funny i thought it was the other way around just goes to show how equally common the two names are

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

funny i thought it was the other way around just goes to show how equally common the two names are

As far as I'm aware 'condenser' stopped being used in electronics back in the 60's?, if not earlier? - however, it's still used by the motor trade (condenser across the points on a car), and also for 'condenser mikes'.

 

[Thunderchild]

mind you here in Italy the direct translation of condenser is in use there is not other term except for the not so correct capacity word so perhaps that is the source of my bewilderment

 

[ericgibbs]

mind you here in Italy the direct translation of condenser is in use there is not other term except for the not so correct capacity word so perhaps that is the source of my bewilderment

The word 'condenser' is used as a term in steam engines!, its where the steam turns back into water so that it can be recycled back into the boiler.

I must say, some of the old electrolytic capacitors when they internally failed acted a bit like a steam engine, as they vented their contents, perhaps thats where the name condenser came from!

Bit like Vesuvius!!!

 

[pixnum]

At first scientists think that the current which is generated can not be used any more as they stored forever and can not be returned back
called it condenser. But after a lot of experiments the scientists confirmed that the stored current can be reused or retuned back. So the scientists
gave its name capacitor. The word "capacitor" comes from capacitance and store. The word "condenser" comes from condensation concept.

 

[Torben]

Condenser was the original term but has since been replaced in English with capacitor. In many languages, a localized version of 'condenser' is still used. In English, however, the term 'condenser' is nowadays more commonly used for a device for inducing a phase change from a gas form to a liquid or solid form.

The word "capacitor" comes from capacitance and store. The word "condenser" comes from condensation concept.

Eh? Do you have a source for that idea? That's the first time I've ever heard that, and it sounds made-up to me. I believe that the correct answer is that the word is derived from the Latin 'capax' (to store or contain, the stem of which is 'capac-') plus the Latin suffix 'tor' (agent). A capacitor is thus an agent of storage.


Just sayin'.

Torben

 

[Thunderchild]

hm yea i had a capacitor "condense" in my face and was very lucky that the eruption just missed my eye stupid me for reversing the polarity of a 2200 uF capacitor talk about Vesuvius more like a canon

 

[Hero999]

The word "condenser" comes from condensation concept.

Condense can also mean concentrated and a capacitor concentrates the charge in a small space.

 

[Dean Huster]

"The word 'capacitor' comes from capacitance and store."

I don't think I'd hang my hat on the "store" part of that: resistor, transitor, thermistor, thyristor .....

Dean

 

[ericgibbs]

hi dean,
Digging around the web, found this, thought it maybe the answer?

Extract:
Pieter van Musschenbroek, the professor of natural philosophy at Leiden in Holland, was just about to get a nasty surprise.
When he touched the inner conductor of one of the world's first condensers this day in 1745,
he got a severe shock -- "I would not take a second shock for the kingdom of France".

The electric charge was supplied by the electrostatic machine on the right, and the film of moisture on the outside of the glass jar provided the outer conductor. The electric fluid, was, of course, condensing in the water forming the inner conductor. The Leiden Jar itself is found on another page.
The apparatus on this page is often called the Condenser of Aepinus, after F.U.T. Aepinus (b. 1724). It appears that Ewald G. von Kleist (ca.1700-1748) independently made the discovery of the method of storing electrical charge a few months before van Musschenbroek.
https://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Electricity/Condenser/Condenser.html

 

[pebe]

As a point of interest, the ‘Jar’ was the Imperial unit of capacitance, used by the Royal Navy until the 1950s

See here

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2007/05/01.pdf

 

[Roff]

As a point of interest, the ‘Jar’ was the Imperial unit of capacitance, used by the Royal Navy until the 1950s

See here

https://personal.rhul.ac.uk/UHAP/027/PH2420/PH2420_files/notes/01.pdf

I'm I'm guessing that, even after discarding "jar", the Royal Navy still retains "lid" as a unit of measure.

 

[Sceadwian]

According to dictionary.com
capacit is pretty obvious, to store, hold, or contain.
The or is just a common suffix for single latin words commonly used by both Anglo-French and Americans (I'm paraphrasing from dictionary.com)

 

[Gayan Soyza]

If I want a 22 pF, I will ask from the supplier give me a 22 pF capacitor.

If I ask him give me a 22 pF condenser he is confused.

 

[Sceadwian]

I think the condenser terms comes from the original concept electricty as an invisible liquid, or condensate of aether. Very very old concepts for the physical world.

 

[atferrari]

Jumping into a train that seems to have stoped many years ago...

BTW, any project in mind, champ?

 

[Rich D.]

Well now that somebody had dug this up, does anybody know the difference between a violin and a fiddle?