Question

Consider a capacitor connected across an ac source. As the capacitance is increased, the current through the capacitor will increase, decrease, or remain constant?

Answer 1

Increasing the capacitance of a capacitor connected to an AC voltage source lowers the capacitive reactance, which leads to an increase in the current flowing through the capacitor.

Step-by-step explanation:

When a capacitor is connected to an AC voltage source, the capacitive reactance (Xc) plays an important role in the behavior of the circuit.

The capacitive reactance is inversely proportional to both the frequency of the AC voltage and the capacitance.

As the capacitance is increased, the capacitive reactance decreases, leading to an increase in the current flow through the capacitor.

It's essential to know that the voltage VC(t) across the capacitor varies with time as VC(t) = Vo sin(ωt), where ω is the angular frequency.

Consequently, with a larger capacitance, the capacitor can store more charge during each cycle, which requires more current to charge and discharge it accordingly.