Page 93 - Basic Electrical Engineering

1.21 CAPACITOR IN PARALLEL AND IN SERIES

When we connect two capacitors in parallel, the plate areas are added. The

total capacitance, therefore, gets added up. When capacitances C , C , C ,
3
2
1
etc. are connected in parallel, the total capacitance C becomes equal to
T

C = C +C +C +…
r
3
2
1

Figure 1.20 (a) Equivalent of capacitors connected in parallel; (b) equivalent of capacitors connected
in series

This is shown in Fig. 1.20 (a).
Series connection of capacitors, as shown in Fig. 1.20 (b), is equivalent to

increasing the effective distance between the plates or the thickness of the
dielectric used. The combined capacitance is less than the individual value.

The value of a capacitor is always specified in either microfarad or
picofarad. There are a variety of ways in which manufacturers indicate the
value of a capacitor.

1.22 Review Questions