Question

How does the capacitance of two identical capacitors connected in parallel compare to that of one of the capacitors?

A). The two capacitors connected in parallel have the same capacitance.
B). The two capacitors connected in parallel have a smaller capacitance.
C). The two capacitors connected in parallel have a larger capacitance.

Answer 1

When two identical capacitors are connected in parallel, their total capacitance is larger than that of just one capacitor, because the parallel connection sums up their individual capacitances.

Step-by-step explanation:

When two identical capacitors are connected in parallel, the total or equivalent capacitance of the combination is the sum of their individual capacitances. This is because in parallel connection, each capacitor is connected directly to the voltage source which results in the voltage across each capacitor being the same as the source. The total charge the capacitors can store is therefore the sum of their individual charges, which means the equivalent capacitance is larger.

In summary, the correct answer is C) The two capacitors connected in parallel have a larger capacitance. The reason behind this is the parallel arrangement effectively increases the plate area available for storing charge, therefore increasing the overall capacitance.