2. Electrical Circuits of Ordinary Capacitors

Here, we give a brief review regarding traditional circuits of ordinary capacitors where current is described as a flow in the classical theory of circuits. We distinguish this from later chapters regarding thin dielectrics that are solid-state electronic devices. For such devices, the flow analogy is only approximate because, at the nanoscale, quantum effects have to be taken into consideration. This is discussed in Chap. 3. The discussion of capacitors, resistors, and classic electric circuits that follows is based on Jones (1971). Plate type capacitors are discussed in Sect. 2.1, while in Sect. 2.2, the electrical laws for parallel and series circuits of ordinary capacitors and the behavior of the charge distribution on a series circuit are given.