Answer to Question #317076 in Electric Circuits for lia

Question

You have five 10.0 F capacitors. Show all possible connections of all five capacitors to produce an equivalent capacitance of .5 F

Answer 1

Explanations & Calculations

• The minimum value of the equivalent capacitance is achieved when the 5 capacitors are in series which is $\frac{10\,F}{5} =\small 2\,F$.
• This is larger than what is being requested to find, $\small 0.5\,F$
• So there is no way these 5 capacitors be connected to produce a $\small 0.5\,F$ equivalent capacitance.

• But if it is the value $\small 5\,F$ , then connecting just 2 of them in series yields it.