Series and Parallel Capacitors
Purpose
Three identical 400 µF capacitors are connected in series and parallel while a capacitance meter displays the total capacitance. Students verify the combination rules quantitatively: parallel capacitances add, series capacitances combine as reciprocals.
Figure 1:
Capacitors configured in parallel show a combined capacitance of approximately 1200 μF (the meter reads about 1337 μF, close to the theoretical 1200 μF from three 400 μF capacitors). Note the automatic range shifting to mF scale for larger values.
Figure 2:
Series configuration of the three capacitors results in a dramatically reduced total capacitance of approximately 133 μF (theoretical value: 400/3 ≈ 133 μF), demonstrating the inverse relationship in series capacitance calculations.