Real, effective, and indicated values
A thorough understanding of real, effective, and indicated values of a
component, as well as their significance to component measurements,
is essential before you proceed with making practical measurements.
A real value
is the value of a circuit component (resistor, inductor or
capacitor) that excludes the defects of its parasites. In many cases, the
real value can be defined by a mathematical relationship involving the
component’s physical composition. In fact, real values are only of
academic interest (Figure-6).
Figure- 6. Real capacitor value
The effective value
takes into consideration the effects of a
component’s parasites. The effective value is the algebraic sum of the
circuit component’s real and reactive vectors; thus, it is frequency
dependent (Figure-7).
Figure- 7. Effective value
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