CLB10402

The basic Capacitor

 A capacitor is a passive electrical component that stores electrical charge and has
the property of capacitance.
 Capacitance is the amount of charged that a capacitor can store per unit of voltage
across its plate.
 It is also a measure of capacitor’s ability to store charge.
 The more charge per unit of voltage that a capacitor can store, the greater its
capacitance. It can be expressed by :
Q
C
V
 Where C – capacitance, Q is a charge and V – voltage,
 Rearranging the terms in equation above, two other formulas can be obtained.
Q
 That is Q = CV and V 
C
 Unit of capacitance is farad (F).
 1 farad is the amount of capacitance when one coulomb (C ) of charge is stored
with one volt across the plate.

Series Capacitor

o The total capacitance of a series connection of capacitor is less than an individual

capacitance of any of the capacitors.

Charging current is same for each capacitor, I = C/t

All capacitors store same amount of charge and V = Q/C

CLB10402

1
CT 
o Total capacitance - : 1 1 1 1
   ....... 
C1 C 2 C 3 Cn
C1C 2
o 2 capacitors in series -: CT 
C1  C 2
C
o Capacitors of equal value in Series : CT  where n – the number of equal-
n
value capacitor.

Parallel Capacitor

 Capacitances add when capacitors are connected in parallel.

 Total capacitance :- CT  C1  C 2  C 3  .....C n

Inductors

 An inductor is a passive electrical component formed by a coil of wire and which

exhibits the property of inductance.
 Inductance is a measure of a coil’s ability to establish an induced voltage as a
result of a change in its current, and the induced voltage is in direction to oppose
the change in current.
 The unit of inductance is henry (H).
 The inductance of a coil is one henry when current through the coil, changing the
rate of one ampere per second, induces/ produce one volt across the coil.

Series and Parallel Inductors

 Total series inductance – is the sum of the individual inductances.

 The formulae in general :- LT  L1  L2  L3  ........  Ln
 Total parallel Inductance – the total is less than the smallest inductance.
1 1 1 1 1
 The general formulae : - L  L  L  L  .......  L
T 1 2 3 n

 Or
1
LT 
 1   1   1   1 
         ........   
 L1   L2   L3   Ln 