TenderTendon
- Dec 20, 2014
- 143
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2014
- Messages
- 143
The rules involving capacitors in series and in parallel have always confused me. Even today, when I see a little subject involving a simple DC power supply filter, I still scratch my head. The confusion comes from the fact that when putting 2 capacitors in parallel, the capacitance is doubled, but the voltage rating stays the same. One attribute changes, the other stays the same. Now, if you put them in series, the voltage capacity is doubled, but the capacitance does not stay the same. It is halved. BOTH attributes change. What phenomenon causes this? The only thing I can think of to compare it to would be batteries. If I put 2 batteries in parallel, the capacity is doubled, but the voltage stays the same. If I put them in series, the voltage is doubled, but the capacity stays the same. At least that is my understanding. I would think that capacitors follow the same rules as batteries, but they don't seem to. I can easily find 20 websites that teach the parallel/series capacitor rule, but none explain what causes the behavior. I guess I need to read up on this more.
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