Physics Capacitance

Question

Two capacitors provide an equivalent capacitance of 20.00 F when connected in parallel and 5.00 F when connected in series.

What is the smaller capacitance of the capacitors? 

What is the larger capacitance of the capacitors?

Answer 1

Capacitors in series combine as follows: 1/C = 1/C₁ + 1/C₂ + ... + 1/C_n

Capacitors in parallel combine as follows: C = C₁ + C₂ + ... + C_n

For this problem:

1. C₁ + C₂ = 20
2. 1/C₁ + 1/C₂ = 1/5

Solve this system to get C₁ = C₂ = 10F ( BTW, a 10F capacitor is HUGE! It is much more common to see units of uF (micro-Farads) or nF (nano-Farads) or even pF (pico-Farads) )