capacitors in series

[Ken O]

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

 

[Jim Backus]

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:19:35 UTC, "Ken O" <lerameur101@Ya.com> wrote:

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.


--
Jim Backus OS/2 user since 1994
bona fide replies to j <dot> backus <the circle thingy> jita <dot>
demon <dot> co <dot> uk

 

[R. Steve Walz]

Ken O wrote:

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
--
-Steve Walz rstevew@armory.com ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/rstevew
Electronics Site!! 1000's of Files and Dirs!! With Schematics Galore!!
http://www.armory.com/~rstevew or http://www.armory.com/~rstevew/Public

 

[Ken O]

"R. Steve Walz" <rstevew@armory.com> wrote in message
news:41CA54B0.B33@armory.com...

Ken O wrote:

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
--
-Steve Walz rstevew@armory.com ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/rstevew
Electronics Site!! 1000's of Files and Dirs!! With Schematics Galore!!
http://www.armory.com/~rstevew or http://www.armory.com/~rstevew/Public

Thanks for your help, very usefull.

Ken