When different rated capacitors are connected in parallel, the total capacitance is equal to which of the following?

When different rated capacitors are connected in parallel, the total capacitance is equal to which of the following?

• A. Equal to the product of the capacitances
• B. Equal to the sum of all the capacitances
• C. Equal to the smallest capacitance
• D. Equal to the average capacitance

Answer: (B)

When capacitors are connected in parallel, they all share the same voltage and the charges they store add up. Since capacitance is defined as C = Q/V, each capacitor stores Q_i = C_i × V. The total charge is Q_total = Σ(C_i × V) = V × ΣC_i, and the equivalent capacitance is C_eq = Q_total / V = ΣC_i. So the total capacitance is simply the sum of the individual capacitances. For example, 4 µF and 6 µF in parallel give 10 µF. The other ideas don’t fit because product, the smallest, or an average wouldn’t reflect how charges combine when the voltage is shared across parallel paths.

When capacitors are connected in parallel, they all share the same voltage and the charges they store add up. Since capacitance is defined as C = Q/V, each capacitor stores Q_i = C_i × V. The total charge is Q_total = Σ(C_i × V) = V × ΣC_i, and the equivalent capacitance is C_eq = Q_total / V = ΣC_i. So the total capacitance is simply the sum of the individual capacitances. For example, 4 µF and 6 µF in parallel give 10 µF. The other ideas don’t fit because product, the smallest, or an average wouldn’t reflect how charges combine when the voltage is shared across parallel paths.