Capacitors and Resistors

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

CoffeeintheMorning

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Why is the equivalent capacitance for capacitors in series 1/C = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3 ... 1/Cn but for resistors in series R = R1 + R2 + R3 + ... Rn?

Thanks
 
Think about the formula for capacitance. What happens when the distance between two capacitor plates increases?

Think about the formula for resistance. What happens when the length of the resistor increases?

You can think about a bunch of capacitors in series as the equivalent of one big capacitor that's separated by a large distance. Similarly, you can think of resistors in series as one long resistor.
 
Hi, these are actually mathematical statement which was derived from the repeated experimentations, there might be a logic behind that a physician could explain it, but so far I know is that these equations are the result of repeated experimentations just like no one can prove why mathematical 1 is 1 and why 2 is 2.