Question

Three capacitors of equal capacitance are connected in parallel to a battery, and together they draw a certain amount of charge Q from that battery.

a) Will the charge on each capacitor be

1) Q
2) 3Q
3) Q/3?

Answer 1

The charge on each capacitor when three equal capacitors are connected in parallel to a battery and draw a total charge Q is Q/3. Hence, option (3) is correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

When three capacitors of equal capacitance are connected in parallel to a battery, and they draw a total charge Q from the battery, the charge on each capacitor will be Q/3. This is because in a parallel circuit, the total charge (Q) stored by the network is the sum of all the individual charges (Q = Q1 + Q2 + Q3).

Since the capacitors have equal capacitance and are connected in parallel, they experience the same voltage across them and thus each capacitor will have an equal share of the total charge, leading to each capacitor having a charge of Q/3.