Could you get a capacitor to hold a charge and then release at a specified time?

Question

Like thousands of caapcitors releasing charges like a timer over twelve hours from a single charge?

Answer 1

Certainly. That's what an electronic flash does. The battery slowly charges a capacitor. Then, on demand, the capacitor is discharged into a Xenon flash tube. Some capacitors are being developed now with extremely high energy density, higher than even the best batteries. The best benefit is that charge and discharge rates are limited only by conductivity and heating, not by chemistry. That suits them very well for hybrid and other electric cars. You could do it with today's technology if you didn't care about cost or weight.

Answer 2

Sure, in fact that's how those shock batons work. The battery stores up a large charge in the capacitors and when the button is pressed that charge is released into the tip creating the huge voltage spike.

There are other applications like creating the spark in a spark plug, or building up enough current to electrically excite the neon inside a fluorescent light.

All you need to do is to create a circuit to feed the capacitor and charge it up then a short circuit to dischage it.

Answer 3

yes