A charged capacitor blocks steady DC

The mistake

Treating a capacitor as a wire after a long time in a DC circuit.

Why it feels right

At first current flows while charge moves, so it seems the path remains conducting.

How to catch it

You assign a nonzero steady current through a capacitor in a DC circuit.

The first principle

After a long time, an ideal capacitor in DC is fully charged and no current flows through its branch. Initially it can act like a short; at steady state it acts like an open circuit.

worked mini-example

A capacitor and resistor are connected to a battery for a long time. What is capacitor current?

Common wrong move

V/R forever.

Correct

Zero at steady state.

Test the repair CIR-07 · transfer
An initially uncharged capacitor is connected in series with a resistor to an ideal battery. Immediately after closing the switch, the current is:

Make a fresh prediction before referring to the worked example.