What Are Capacitors Used For?

 Capacitors are one of the main ways technologies store energy. They have a specific advantage in some scenarios over batteries, which is the speed at which they release energy. While batteries release energy over a longer period of time -- sometimes for years, as is the case for watches -- capacitors quickly let go of a blast of energy. For instance, camera flashes need a big load of electricity all at once, so capacitors charge up just before that flash and then quickly let it all go when it's time to say "cheese."

Capacitors are found all over the place, can be used in several ways and come in all different shapes and sizes. They can be used as timing devices because they charge up at regular intervals. They can be in laptops or they can be gigantic and attached directly to the power grid.