Capacitance is defined as the charge stored per volt. What is the unit of capacitance?

• A. Capacitance is the charge stored per volt
• B. Capacitance is the energy stored per volt
• C. Capacitance is the charge stored per ampere
• D. Capacitance is the resistance of a capacitor

Answer: (A)

Capacitance tells us how much charge a capacitor can store for a given voltage, defined by Q = C V. Since Q is in coulombs and V is in volts, the unit of capacitance is coulombs per volt. That unit is called the Farad. So a capacitance of 1 farad would store 1 coulomb of charge for every 1 volt of potential difference. In real-world components, values are typically in microfarads or picofarads. The other descriptions describe different quantities (energy per volt, charge per current, or resistance) and do not define the unit of capacitance.