This week I learned that Capacitors are pretty awesome and they keep getting cooler.

The 555 Timer is an integrated circuit that creates a series of on and off signals that form what is known as a square wave. What does this have to do with a capacitor? Well let me tell you. Capacitors are made of usually two metal plates that are seperated by a gap. Each plate stores opposing charges. Because of this a capacitor can be charged and discharged. The rate that a capacitor charges and discharges forms a more logarithmic based graph.

The 555 Timer uses a capacitor by setting a low and a high threshold on the charge of the capacitance. When the capacitor is charged to a certain level it triggers the 555 Timer to flip to an on state and if the 555 Timer reaches the other threshold the circuit switches to an off state. This switching creates a square shaped wave. You can then control the frequency of this wave by varying the resistance.

Below is a video showcasing what a varying frequency square wave sounds like: