Capacitors in Parallel

Capacitors in Parallel

In the Parallel combination, the capacitors are first arranged so that all the first plates of different capacitors are connected at one terminal and all the second plates of the capacitors are connected at another terminal . The two terminals are then connected to the two terminals of a battery.

Consider two capacitors of capacitance C₁ and C₂ connected in parallel to a battery of potential difference V.
The charges on each capacitor is given as

Q₁ = C₁V and Q₂ = C₂ V

The total charge drawn from the battery is

Q = Q₁ + Q₂ = C₁V + C₂V.
If C is the combined capacitance of two capacitors then total charge drawn from the battery is Q = CV, the above equation changes to

CV = C₁V + C₂ VFor ‘n’ numbers of capacitors in parallel then combined capacitance is C = C₁ + C₂ + C₃ ………………… + C_n.