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Ceramic capacitors, unlike
electrolytic ones, have their value coded as three digits, due to their size, as the smallest ones are about the size and shape of a
lentil bean.
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They are measured in
Farads, which is equivalent to producing 1
volt at 1
ampere for 1 second. That is actually a huge value, so all capacitors are graded using the
SI prefixes in
pico-(10
-12),
nano-(10
-9), or
micro(10
-6)-farads .
The capacitors have three digits inscribed on them. The first two represent the two first significant digits (mantissa) and the last remaining digit indicates the number of zeroes following (exponent) represented in picofarads, mmn:: mm X 10n pF :
475
47 with five zeroes: 4,700,000pF or with zeroes shifted out: 4.7μF.
A special exception exists for small pF values: the format is mRn:
4R7
represents a 4.7pF capacitor.