Page 117 - Electrical Engineering Dictionary
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reactive power Q. The region of allowable  and ground. The circuit finds application in
                              operation is determined by factors such as ro-  capacitive sensors.
                              tor thermal limit, stator thermal limit, rated
                              power of prime mover (alternator operation),  capacitive reactance  the opposition of-
                              and stability torque limit.            fered to the flow of an alternating or pulsating
                                                                     current by capacitance measured in ohms.
                              capability list  a list of capabilities, usu-
                              ally associated with a process, defining a set  capacitively coupled current  See
                              of objects and the modes of access permit-  capacitively coupled field.
                              ted to those objects. Computer systems have
                              been designed to use capability lists to define  capacitivelycoupledfield  fieldappliedto
                              the memory environment for process execu-  the affected limb by electrodes touching the
                              tion.                                  skin (the current from the electrodes has both
                                                                     displacement and conduction components).
                              capacitance   the measure of the electri-
                              cal size of a capacitor, in units of farads.  capacitor bank  (1) an assembly at one
                              Thus a capacitor with a large capacitance  location of capacitors and all necessary ac-
                              stores more electrons (coulombs of charge)  cessories, such as switching equipment, pro-
                              at a given voltage than one with a smaller  tective equipment, and controls, required for
                              capacitance.                           a complete operating installation.
                                In a multiconductor system separated by  (2) a group of (typically 3) capacitors
                              nonconductive mediums, capacitance (C)  mounted on an electric power line for volt-
                              is the proportionality constant between the  age boosting or power factor correction.
                              charge (q) on each conductor and the volt-
                              age (V ) between each conductor. The total
                              equilibrium system charge is zero. Capac-  capacitor-start induction motor (CSIM)
                              itance is dependent on conductor geometry,  a single-phase induction motor with a ca-
                              conductor spatial relationships, and the ma-  pacitor in series with its auxiliary winding,
                              terial properties surrounding the conductors.  producing nearly a 90 phase difference be-
                                                                                      ◦
                                Capacitors are constructed as two metal  tween the main winding and the auxiliary
                              surfaces separated by a nonconducting elec-  winding currents at starting. This results in
                              trolytic material. When a voltage is applied  a high starting torque, so this motor is used
                              to the capacitor the electrical charge accumu-  for hard-to-start loads. The auxiliary wind-
                              lates in the metals on either side of the non-  ing and capacitor are removed from the cir-
                              conducting material, negative charge on one  cuit by a centrifugal switch as the machine
                              side and positive on the other. If this mate-  approaches operating speed.
                              rial is a fluid then the capacitor is electrolytic;
                              otherwise, it is nonelectrolytic.      capacity miss  a category of cache misses
                                                                     denoting the case where the cache is not large
                              capacitance bridge  a circuit that includes  enough to hold all blocks needed during ex-
                              two branches which form a balanced drive  ecution of a program. See also conflict miss,
                              (two sinusoidal voltage sources connected  cold start miss.
                              in series with common point grounded) and
                              twocapacitancesconnectedinseriesbetween  capacity region  for a multiple termi-
                              free ends of the voltage sources. The detector  nal communications system. The entire set
                              of current (virtual ground of an operational  of rate-vectors for which there exist chan-
                              amplifier is a suitable choice) is connected  nel codes such that the probability of mak-
                              between the common point of the capacitors  ing a decoding error can be made arbitrar-



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