Capacitor and Equivalent Capacitance

Series & Parallel Capacitors Practice Problems Name:
AP Physics Period:

1. What value is the same for any two capacitors in series? Why?

2. What value is the same for any two capacitors in parallel? Why?

3. You have two capacitors of 0.40 F and 0.60 F.
a) What is the equivalent capacitance if you add them in series?

b) What is the equivalent capacitance if you add them in parallel?

4. Three capacitors: 0.20 F, 0.08 F and 0.40 F, are connected in series and attached to a 12 V battery.
a) What is the total equivalent capacitance of this arrangement?

b) What charge accumulates on each capacitor?

c) What is the voltage across each capacitor?

d) How much charge is drawn from the battery?

5. When a series combination of two uncharged capacitors is connected to a 12 V battery, 173 J of energy is drawn from the battery. If one of the capacitors has a capacitance of 4.0 F, what is the capacitance of the other?

6. a) For the arrangement of three capacitors shown in the diagram, what value of C1 will give a total equivalent capacitance of 1.7 F? (Hint: the diagram looks strange, but don’t let that fool you)

b) Now that you know C1, find the charge stored on and the voltage across each capacitor.

7. Three capacitors: 0.25 F, 0.10 F and 0.50 F, are connected in parallel and attached to a 12 V battery.
a) What is the total equivalent capacitance of this arrangement?

b) What is the voltage across each capacitor?

c) What charge accumulates on each capacitor?

d) How much charge is drawn from the battery?

8. You have three capacitors: 1.5 mF, 2.0 mF and 3.0 mF. What are the maximum and minimum equivalent capacitances you can obtain by combining these three capacitors? How can you be sure your values are the maximum and minimum?

9. Given the arrangement of capacitors given to the right, answer the following