I really like that you take the time to go over your circuits operations. At least you talk all along using a schematic when needed and do not cram distracting background music! Thx
You're videos are so cool! I know that it would be totally unsafe; but, in theory, could you (probably wearing an insulated glove) just plug that right into an outlet and it would work? Take care, God bless!
It actually doesn't, "120 volts from the wall" means 120 VAC RMS (volts ac, root-mean-square). The peak voltage between the wires (live and neutral) is sqrt(2) times the RMS voltage, so about 170 volts peak. So the voltage starts from zero, rises up to +170, falls to zero, rises to -170, back to zero. And so on. So the peak-to-peak is actually 340V. For "240 volt" countries, it's the same, and the peak-to-peak would be about 679 volts. Therefore with no load, the capacitor would eventually charge up to that 170 volts, even with a half-wave (single diode) rectifier. A full-wave (four diode) rectifier delivers more power, but both deliver the same peak voltage, and thus would charge a single capacitor to the same voltage. If the circuit was loaded, a single diode would indeed have a lower voltage on the capacitor because less power is transferred.
