What is the capacitance?

(a) What is the maximum equivalent capacitance that can be obtained by combination of three capacitors of 2.0?

• (a) What is the maximum equivalent capacitance that can be obtained by combination of three capacitors of 2.0 µF, 1.8 µF, and 3.3 µF? (b) What is the minimum equivalent capacitance that can be obtained by combination of the same three capacitors?

• Answer:

  Capacitors in parallel add, so connect in parallel to get the sum of the individual capacitor values as the maximum effective value. Capacitors in series give the least effective capacitance, with: 1/C = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3 = 1/2 + 1/1.8 + 1/3.3 Add these and take the reciprocal to find the effective capacitance in µF.