Re: terry fritz here is the info

["Gomez ADDams" <gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

on that fateful day 7/27/00 11:07 PM, Tesla list uttered:

> Original poster: DANIMAL799-at-aol-dot-com
> 
> i didn't know that the capicatince dropped when capicators were wired in
> series.  i assumed that  3 capacitors in series would have the same
> capacatance as 1  but with 3 times the voltage.  i was jsut guessing from my
> limited electronics tinkering.

FYI: if you have _identical_value_ capacitors in series, you can divide the
total by the number of caps.  If they are different values (a bad idea if
you're building high voltage strings) you use the following formula:

         1
______________________   that's "one over (one over C1 plus one over C2)...

  1    1    1    1
  __ + __ + __ + __  ...
  C1   C2    C3  C4


For two capacitors only, of differing values, you can use:
          C1xC2
Ctotal = _______
          C1+C2

 Why don't you want to use differing values in a string?  Because, unless
there are external connections (to the voltage source), the total quantity
of charge Q (in coulombs) in each capacitor must be equal.  But if they have
different amounts of capacitance, than for that rule to be true, the voltage
across each capacitor must be different.  So the smallest value cap in the
string "experiences" the highest voltage.  This is true even for the slight
variation in capacitance among identical values, which is why equalizing
resistors are a good idea for long strings.

- Bill "Gomez" Lemieux

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