🔖 Topics

  • The ideal capacitor (circuit element)
  • The ideal battery (circuit element)
  • Capacitors in series
  • Capacitors in parallel
  • Energy stored in a capacitor

🎯 Objectives

  • Model ideal batteries and ideal capacitors in a circuit
  • Sketch out different configurations of capacitors in circuits
  • Identify capacitors in series and parallel in a circuit
  • Calculate the net capacitance of a circuit
  • Calculate the net energy stored in capacitors in a circuit

📋 Sequence

🖥️ Animations, Simulations, Activities

📝 Practice Problems

  1. I connect a capacitor of 1.2 mF to a battery of 9.0 V. What is the total charge stored on the capacitor?
  2. I connect a capacitor of 1.2 mF to a battery of 9.0 V. What is the total energy stored on the capacitor?
  3. I connect three 1.2 mF capacitors in series. What is the net capacitance of the combination?
  4. I connect three 1.2 mF capacitors in parallel. What is the net capacitance of the combination?
  5. What is the equivalent capacitance of the diagram below? The values of the capacitors are \( C_1 = 10 \: mF \), \( C_2 = 25 \: mF \), \( C_3 = 5 \: mF \), and \( C_4 = 100 \: mF \).

Capacitor Network 1

✅ Partial Solutions

  1. 0.011 C
  2. 0.049 J
  3. 0.40 mF
  4. 3.6 mF
  5. 10.83 mF

📘 Connected Resources

  • Giambattista, Alan, et al. College Physics With an Integrated Approach to Forces and Kinematics. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2020.
  • Rouinfar, Amy, et al. “Capacitor Lab: Basics.” PhET, https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/capacitor-lab-basics/latest/capacitor-lab-basics_en.html, December 2023.