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capacitors in series

K

Ken O

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

This is something very basic, I have been using it for a while, When you two
capacitors in series, you end up having the equivalent of one capacitor that
is lower in Farad then the lowest capacitor. My question is ,WHY . One
capacitor charges, well they all have to charge at the same time I suppose
and also discharge at the same time. Would it have an accumulative effect ?

thanks

Ken
 
J

Jim Backus

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

This is something very basic, I have been using it for a while, When you two
capacitors in series, you end up having the equivalent of one capacitor that
is lower in Farad then the lowest capacitor. My question is ,WHY . One
capacitor charges, well they all have to charge at the same time I suppose
and also discharge at the same time. Would it have an accumulative effect ?

Hopefully this is easy and non-scientific to follow: Consider the
simplest capacitor - two metal plates with an air gap between them.
The wider the gap, the smaller the capacitance. When you put a second
one in series you are effectively increasing the air gap, hence the
capacitance is reduced.
 
R

R. Steve Walz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ken said:
Hello,

This is something very basic, I have been using it for a while, When you two
capacitors in series, you end up having the equivalent of one capacitor that
is lower in Farad then the lowest capacitor. My question is ,WHY . One
capacitor charges, well they all have to charge at the same time I suppose
and also discharge at the same time. Would it have an accumulative effect ?

thanks

Ken
-------------
Here's a way to think about it. Caps in series are the same as one cap
with thicker dieletric, and thicker is lower capacitance. Capacitance
goes like Capacitance=epsilon*Area/Distance. Distance being thickness.

-Steve
 
K

Ken O

Jan 1, 1970
0
R. Steve Walz said:
-------------
Here's a way to think about it. Caps in series are the same as one cap
with thicker dieletric, and thicker is lower capacitance. Capacitance
goes like Capacitance=epsilon*Area/Distance. Distance being thickness.

-Steve

Thanks for your help, very usefull.

Ken
 
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