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College of Letters & Science
Department of Physics
Demonstrations
Apparatus
5 Electricity and Magnetism
Demos
Short a Capacitor
5C30.20 SHORT A CAPACITOR
A 0.1 uf non-polar capacitor can be charged to 5000 V then discharged with a loud snap.
Slowly increase voltage to desired value, then remove cables and turn HV supply off before discharging capacitor.
Wear safety glasses.
As a humorous followup, charge a 1 F, 5 V capacitor then short it with your finger.
If you need to discharge the capacitor, use the 10 ohm resistor to limit the current.
(set voltage to 5.0, current limit to 1 A)
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