Module 2 : Electrostatics
Lecture 11 : Capacitance
 

The charge on each capacitor is obtained by multiplying $V$with the capacitance, i.e. $Q_1 = C_1V\ \ Q_2 = C_2V\ldots$. Since total charge in the capacitors is sum of all the charges, the effective capacitance of the combination is

\begin{displaymath}C = \frac{Q_1+Q_2+Q_3+\ldots}{V} = \frac{Q_1}{V}+\frac{Q_2}{V}+ \frac{Q_3}{V}+\ldots = C_1+C_2+C_3+\ldots\end{displaymath}
  Series Combination :
 

When capacitors are joined end to end in series, the first capacitor gets charged and induces an equal charge on the second capacitor which is connected to it. This in turn induces an equal charge on the third capacitor, and so on.

\includegraphics{fig50.eps}

The net potential difference between the positive plate of the first capacitor and the negative plate of the last capacitor in series is

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