Capacitance converter
Convert between farads, µF, nF and pF, the three orders of magnitude electronics actually lives in.
That's about the same as an electrolytic capacitor. Charged to 5 V it stores about 1.25 mJ.
What it means
What is that component?
Stored energy is shown at 5 V, from E = ½CV².
Every unit
Your capacitance in every unit
Learn
Three things worth knowing
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104 means 100 nF
Capacitor codes work like resistor bands: 104 is 10 followed by four zeros, in picofarads, which is 100,000 pF, or 100 nF, or 0.1 µF.
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Faraday’s name, Leyden’s jar
The first capacitor was the Leyden jar of 1745, a glass jar with foil inside and out. The unit honours Michael Faraday a century later.
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µF, nF and the missing middle
American schematics often skip nanofarads entirely, writing 0.1 µF where Europe writes 100 nF. Same part, different habit.
Shortcuts
Popular capacitance conversions
Background
About capacitance units
Capacitance measures stored charge per volt, in farads. A farad is enormous, so real parts are microfarads, nanofarads and picofarads.