During discharging, what happens to the current flow in a capacitor?

When a capacitor is discharging, the current flow exhibits a decreasing behavior over time. Initially, when the capacitor begins to discharge, the voltage across its terminals is at its maximum, resulting in a high initial current. As the capacitor discharges, the voltage drops, leading to a reduction in the current. This relationship follows an exponential decay pattern, meaning the current decreases gradually over the discharge period.

The decreasing nature of the current is governed by the capacitor's time constant, dictated by the capacitance and the resistance in the circuit. As the capacitor releases its stored energy, the flow of current diminishes until it approaches zero when the voltage across the capacitor reaches a negligible level. The shift in current flow is fundamental to understanding how capacitors behave in DC circuits and is critical for applications involving timing and filtering.