Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships

[gruundehn]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I don't understand the passive / active distinction. A capacitor stores energy in an electric field. A battery stores electrical energy as chemical energy. If anything, the battery seems the more "active" of the two in that more has to happen to get electricity back out. But they both have to change something about their state.

"Accumulator" is a general term for something that stores energy; by that definition, both batteries and capacitors are types of (electrical) accumulator. I've also seen that term used for non-electrical energy storage, as in hydraulic systems, so it seems the broadest of the three, and thus appropriate enough either for purposes of the OP or of Doc Smith.

A capacitor stores electrical energy on a physical surface and a battery stores electrical charge (sort of) in a chemical solution. I say sort of because a battery does not store electrical energy but chemical energy which due to chemical action, releases electrical energy.

When my father got his electrical engineering degree, accumulator was the technical term for what is now known as a capacitor. The term has broadened its meaning over the years. I grew up with that narrower usage and that may affect my thinking even though I spent decades as an electronics technician where the term capacitor was used exclusively.