Electronic – How would this circuit work? Would the LED behave like a strobe

capacitorcircuit analysisled

I have placed a simple picture of the circuit I am trying to determine the behavior of. It is just a simple voltage source like a battery in series with a capacitor in series with an LED.

To my understanding, the capacitor would charge up, then release a large charge quickly which would make the LED very bright, but then begin to fade away quickly, and the process would repeat. However, I’m not sure this would be true. So what exactly would happen in this circuit?

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Best Answer

The process will not repeat. You will get a brief flash of light (if the capacitor is large enough, but not so large that the LED is destroyed). Once the voltage across the capacitor reaches its maximum value, which is roughly the same as the supply/battery voltage, then no more current will flow and nothing happens.

Of course, the battery voltage must be more than 1V for normal LEDs. I'm assuming that was just a placeholder value.