A capacitor of capacitance C is charged to a voltage V and then connected to another uncharged capacitor of capacitance C. What is the final voltage across both capacitors?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
A capacitor of capacitance C is charged to a voltage V and then connected to another uncharged capacitor of capacitance C. What is the final voltage across both capacitors?
V/2
V
2V
0
When connected, charge redistributes between the two capacitors, resulting in a final voltage of V/2 across each.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: A capacitor of capacitance C is charged to a voltage V and then connected to another uncharged capacitor of capacitance C. What is the final voltage across both capacitors?
Solution: When connected, charge redistributes between the two capacitors, resulting in a final voltage of V/2 across each.
Steps: 8
Step 1: Understand that a capacitor stores electrical charge. The first capacitor has a capacitance C and is charged to a voltage V.
Step 2: Calculate the initial charge (Q) on the first capacitor using the formula Q = C * V.
Step 3: When the charged capacitor is connected to the uncharged capacitor, the total charge (Q) will be shared between both capacitors.
Step 4: The total capacitance when two capacitors of the same capacitance C are connected in parallel is C_total = C + C = 2C.
Step 5: The final voltage (V_final) across both capacitors can be found using the formula V_final = Q / C_total.
