The charge and energy stored in capacitors when connected to a battery in series or parallel depend on the configuration. Series connections require calculating an equivalent capacitance, while parallel connections sum individual capacitances, with formulas provided to find charge and energy stored.
When dealing with capacitors connected in series to a battery, the charge (Q) on each capacitor is the same and can be found by using the formula Q = CV, where C is the equivalent capacitance in series and V is the voltage of the battery. To find the equivalent capacitance (Ceq) in series, use the formula 1/Ceq = 1/C1 + 1/C2. After calculating Ceq, multiply it by the battery voltage to get the charge.
The energy (U) stored in a capacitor in series is given by U = (1/2)CeqV2. For parallel connections, the total capacitance is the sum of the individual capacitances (Ctotal = C1 + C2), and the voltage across each capacitor is the same as the battery voltage. The charge on each capacitor is then found by Q = CV for each individual capacitor, and the total energy stored (Utotal) is Utotal = (1/2)CtotalV2.
The charge and energy stored in capacitors depend on whether they are connected in series or parallel to a voltage source, with different methods to calculate them depending on the configuration.