Here is a list of what was used in this lab. The most common forms of resistors are made from fine wires of special alloys wound onto cylindrical forms or from a molded composition material containing carbon and other substances in varying amounts. Resistors are rated for the maximum amount of power that they can safely handle. If the externally applied voltage is then removed, the capacitor plates remain charged, and the electric charge induces an electric potential between the two plates.
Capacitance is measured in farads and fractions of a farad.
The dielectric constant is a measure of the increase in capacitance due to a particular insulator used to separate the plates. The Leyden jar, a form of capacitor invented at the Univ. of Leiden in the 18th cent., consists of a narrow-necked glass jar coated on part of its inner and outer surfaces with conductive metal foil. In general, current flowing through a diode is not proportional to the voltage between its terminals. A thermistor is a special semiconductor diode whose conductivity increases with the diode temperature. A simple transformer consists of two coils of wire electrically insulated from each other and arranged so that a change in the current through the primary coil will produce a change in voltage across the secondary coil.