Final answer:
A capacitor is an electrical component designed to store energy by separating electric charge on opposing plates, and it can release this energy when disconnected from its charging source.
Step-by-step explanation:
An electrical component that stores energy when an electric charge is forced onto its plates is called a capacitor. A capacitor consists of two conducting plates, known as capacitor plates, which are separated by an insulating material called a dielectric. When connected to a battery, these plates store equal amounts of positive and negative charge, and although the capacitor remains electrically neutral overall, it is said to store a charge. Disconnecting the plates from the battery allows the stored energy to be used, for example, to light up a bulb until the energy is depleted.
Capacitors have a wide range of applications, such as filtering static in radio reception and providing energy storage in medical devices like heart defibrillators. The capacity to store electrical energy in a capacitor is measured by a property called capacitance. Important conservation laws state that energy and charge must be conserved within a system.