how do i know weather a component is a capacitor or not.?

Question

i mean isnt there other things in the cylinder shape of a capacitor

Answer 1

There are many ways to know whether a component is a capacitor or not. If you have a capacitance meter, you could measure its capacitance. If you have only an ohmmeter, you could short out the capacitor, then unshort it and connect the ohmmeter across it (perhaps with a large series resistor) and watch to see if the "resistance" changes as the capacitor is charged up by the ohmmeter. You could go to websites with photos of capacitors, such as http://www.digikey.com, and look at examples to compare to your component. You could look at the nomenclature silk-screened on a printed-circuit board upon which the component is mounted. If the designation of the component starts with a "C" (e.g., C203), it's probably a capacitor. You could look to see if the component has a capacitance value printed on it, like "10 uF."

It is true there are other components of cylindrical shape. While resistors and inductors are often cylindrical in shape, they typically have axial leads and color code bands around them. Quartz crystals sometimes come in really small, slender cylindrical cans, but they are typically identified by designations starting with "X" (e.g., X1) printed on circuit boards.

Also, be careful that your unknown component isn't an electric blasting cap or something like that, which are also typically cylindrical. If you have any doubts about that, DON'T HANDLE IT OR CONNECT ANYTHING TO IT.

Answer 2

Usually the components are easy to tell apart, and a resistor doesn't look like a capacitor, etc. Caps tend to have 2 leads sticking out the bottom of a cylinder, resistors are small cylinders with leads at either end. Without seeing what you have, I'm not much help. Good luck.

Answer 3

Recognizing a capacitor is fairly easy when you get to know them. They can be any of several shapes. They can be a cylinder with 2 leads out of one end or a cylinder with a lead out of each end. They can also be disk shaped with 2 leads coming out of the edge of the disk. They can also be square. The size will vary from something that is a good handful to something about the size of a match head. But again, once you learn them they are easy to recognize.

Answer 4

You need to use schematic diagram to look for a capacitor in a circuit. You should know first hand the different electonic component symbols.

Answer 5

Try to see if the size of the capacitor is printed (.3uF, etc.)