hms.tech

A Capacitor stores energy when it is charging up but what is the intuition behind such a process ?

I, in fact, think that as electrons are being stored on one of the plate, positive charge is being build up on the other plate, an electric field is set up as there is a separation of charges, and this separation of charges would bring about a change in Potential energy of the system (the charges on the plate). According to Coulomb's law, this energy change must be negative.

We can infer that the potential energy would really decrease ie become more negative.

If that is true, how can a charged capacitor(with negative energy) do positive work while it discharges to power a bulb? (its absurd)