Serie- en parallelle condensatoren

Capacitors can be connected in series and/or parallel configurations within a circuit.

Consider the capacitors connected in series to a battery; the plate connected to the battery's positive terminal develops a positive charge, while the plate attached to the negative terminal becomes negatively charged.

An equal magnitude of the charge is induced on the other plates, and the same current flows through each capacitor.

Applying Kirchhoff's voltage law to the loop and substituting for the voltage across each capacitor yields the expression for the total voltage across the equivalent capacitor, where the initial voltage across the equivalent capacitor equals the sum of initial voltages across each capacitor.

The reciprocal of the equivalent capacitance is the sum of the reciprocals of the individual capacitances.

Now, if the capacitors are connected in parallel, the potential difference developed across each capacitor equals the battery voltage.

By applying Kirchhoff's current law and substituting the current for each capacitor, the total current flowing through the equivalent capacitor is determined. The equivalent capacitance is the sum of the individual capacitances.