Background This is a little info regarding the lab. Because of this stored energy, the capacitor opposes any change in the voltage across its terminals.
Modern capacitors are less cumbersome.
The simplest consists of two metal plates separated by a dielectric. The larger the plate area and the smaller the separation, the larger will be the capacitance. The characteristics of capacitors also depend upon the dielectric used. Thus one of the important applications of capacitors is to block DC but pass AC from one amplifier to another. Such capacitors can be made inexpensively of paper and metal foil.