Physicists claim that charge never flows through an ideal capacitor. Yet when an uncharged capacitor is first placed in series with a resistor and a battery, then current flows through the battery and the resistor. Explain how this is possible.

Answer 1

Current cannot flow through the insulator that separates the conductors in a capacitor. Instead, the battery acts as a pump that grabs charge from one plate of a capacitor and shoves it through the resistor and onto the other plate of the capacitor. In this way current can flow though the wires, the battery, and the resistor during the period of time the capacitor is charging but not directly between the capacitor plates.