" Capacitors in Series and Parallel Combinations "

-: Capacitors in Series and Parallel Combinations :-

•  Capacitors are one of the standard components in electronic 

 and electrical circuits. However, complicated combinations of ca

 pacitors mostly occur in practical circuits.

• It is, therefore, useful to have a set of rules for finding

the equivalent capacitance of some general capacitors 

    arrangement.

•  The equivalent capacitance of any complicated arrangement 

can be determined by the repeated application of two simple 

rules and these rules are related to capacitors connected in 

    series and in parallel.

Capacitors in Series:-

• Capacitors are said to be connected in series, when they 

  are effectively daisy chained  together in a single line.

• Consider two capacitors connected in series: i.e. in a line 

such that the positive plate of one is attached to the negative 

plate of the other as shown in the fig. above.

• In fact, let us suppose that the positive plate of capacitor 1 

is connected to the input wire, the negative plate of capacitor 1 

is connected to the positive plate of capacitor 2, and the negative 

 plate of capacitor 2 is connected to the output wire.

• Now the question arises, what is the equivalent capacitance 

between the input and output wires ?

• In this connection, it is important to realize that the charge Q  

stored in the two capacitors is same.