Current rating of capacitors

[Walks91]

This is probably an obvious question, but if I were to discharge 5 kV from a capacitor bank through a circuit with a resistance of 100 ohms, that capacitor would have to be able to withstand 500 Amps right?

If the discharge pulse was VERY fast (milliseconds) would this make a difference? (Numbers used are completely arbitrary)

I always see these super high voltage supplies, upwards of 30 kV but with a current rating in the mA range. I'm well aware of ohms law and how a high resistance is the reason for that, but what type of capacitors would be used to produce a very large current in a circuit?

 

[chemelec]

WRONG, It would need to be a Very High Capacitance and a good quality capacitor to discharge 500 Amps.
Depending on the capacitance, it might only discharge a few milliamps.

 

[ronsimpson]

to discharge 5 kV from a capacitor bank

What capacitors are you looking at? How many caps? Parallel or Serial?
More information.