Why does a capacitor act as a current source and inductor as a voltage source?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ECE
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Circuits Rc
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
1 reply · 3K views
ECE
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Does the capacitor acts as a current source and the inductor acts as the voltage source in the RC and RL circuits respectively? If so why does the capacitor not act as a voltage source and inductor not act as a current source?

Thankyou
 
Engineering news on Phys.org
No. Both the capacitor and inductor actually absorb energy. A fully charged capacitor (energized) will discharge nonlinearly into a resistive load. A current source in theory should supply constant current into any load.

A fully energized inductor (where current is flowing through it) will not supply a constant voltage into a load, as required by a voltage source. When the current through the coil is cut off, the magnetic field will collapse and release energy, thus inducing a voltage nonlinearly.