the.com/dielectric
An insulator that stores energy by sulking instead of conducting it away.
means A material that doesn't conduct electricity but can be polarized by an electric field, making it useful for storing energy in capacitors.
from Coined in the 1830s from Greek 'dia-' (through, across) plus 'electric' — the word was suggested to Michael Faraday by the scholar William Whewell, who was his go-to for naming new scientific concepts. The idea was that electric force acts 'through' or 'across' such a material even though no current flows through it — the field penetrates the insulator and polarizes it, rather than being carried along like current in a wire.
- actual job
- polarizes under field instead of carrying current
- capacitor secret
- determines how much charge a capacitor hoards
- everyday example
- the plastic between wires, quietly preventing shorts
- breakdown drama
- push voltage too far, it suddenly conducts and fails