Capacitors in Parallel
When capacitors are connected across each other (side by side) this is called a parallel connection. This is shown below.
To calculate the total overall capacitance of a number of capacitors connected in this way you add up the individual capacitances using the following formula: CTotal = C1 + C2 + C3 and so on Example: To calculate the total capacitance for these three capacitors in parallel. 
CTotal = C1 + C2 + C3 = 10F + 22F + 47F = 79F
Task 1:
Calculate the total capacitance of the following capacitors in parallel. 
Capacitors in Series
When capacitors are connected one after each other this is called connecting in series. This is shown below. 
To calculate the total overall capacitance of two capacitors connected in this way you can use the following formula:
| Ctotal = | C1 x C2 | and so on |
| C1 + C2 |
Example: To calculate the total capacitance for these two capacitors in series. 
Task 2:
Calculate the total capacitance of the following capacitors in series. 
Three or more capacitors in series
To calculate the total overall capacitance of three or more capacitors connected in this way you can use the following formula: 
and so on. Example: To calculate the total capacitance for these three capacitors in series. 
Task 3:
Calculate the total capacitance of the following capacitors in series. 
Answers
Task 1
1 = 232.2F 2 = 169.0F 3 = 7.0F
Task 2
1 = 2.48F 2 = 14.99F 3 = 4.11F
Task 3
1 = 3.33F 2 = 1.167F 3 = 0.35F Note The capacitor values in this worksheet have been kept high (close to or greater than one). This is to simplify the learning experience. In reality typical capacitor values are much smaller than one. Download a pdf version of this page here. 
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