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Discharging a capacitor

Look at the following diagrams and graphs to see the discharging of a capacitor over a five second period.

When the capacitor's terminals are bridged out:

• current flow starts at its maximum and gradually decreases to zero
• voltage across the capacitor starts at its maximum and gradually decreases to zero.

The discharging process takes a time period. The length of time taken to discharge depends on the size of the capacitor and the resistance in the circuit. When the capacitor has been discharged it is ready to be connected to a supply and recharged.