Combining Capacitors in Series & Parallel Video Lessons

Concept

# Problem: You need a capacitance of 50 μF, but you don't happen to have a 50 μF capacitor. You do have a 30 μF capacitor. A. What additional capacitor do you need to produce a total capacitance of 50 μF B. Should you join the two capacitors in parallel or in series?

###### FREE Expert Solution

For 2capacitors in series, the equivalent capacitance is:

$\overline{){{\mathbf{C}}}_{\mathbf{e}\mathbf{q}}{\mathbf{=}}\frac{{\mathbf{C}}_{\mathbf{1}}{\mathbf{C}}_{\mathbf{2}}}{{\mathbf{C}}_{\mathbf{1}}\mathbf{+}{\mathbf{C}}_{\mathbf{2}}}}$

For capacitors in parallel, the equivalent capacitance is:

$\overline{){{\mathbf{C}}}_{\mathbf{e}\mathbf{q}}{\mathbf{=}}{{\mathbf{C}}}_{{\mathbf{1}}}{\mathbf{+}}{{\mathbf{C}}}_{{\mathbf{2}}}{\mathbf{+}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{+}}{{\mathbf{C}}}_{{\mathbf{n}}}}$

If we have a 30μF capacitor and need a 50μF capacitor, we can consider any connection we want.

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###### Problem Details

You need a capacitance of 50 μF, but you don't happen to have a 50 μF capacitor. You do have a 30 μF capacitor. A. What additional capacitor do you need to produce a total capacitance of 50 μF B. Should you join the two capacitors in parallel or in series?