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There are several formal analogies that can be made between electricity, which is invisible to the eye, and more familiar physical behaviors, such as the flowing of water or the motion of mechanical devices.
In the case of capacitance, one analogy to a capacitor in mechanical rectilineal terms is a spring where the compliance of the spring is analogous to the capacitance. Thus in electrical engineering, a capacitor may be defined as an ideal electrical component which satisfies the equation
where V {\displaystyle V} = voltage measured at the terminals of the capacitor, C {\displaystyle C} = the capacitance of the capacitor, I {\displaystyle I} = current flowing between the terminals of the capacitor, and t {\displaystyle t} = time.
The equation quoted above has the same form as that describing an ideal massless spring: