Ham Amateur Radio Technician Practice Exam 2026 - Free Technician Practice Questions and Study Guide

When capacitors are connected in series, the total capacitance decreases compared to the individual capacitances of the capacitors. This occurs because the formula for calculating the total capacitance for capacitors in series is given by the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of their individual capacitances. Mathematically, this is expressed as:

1/C_total = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3 + ...

This relationship highlights that as you add more capacitors in series, the overall effect is akin to having a smaller capacitor. Since the charge stored is shared among the capacitors, the effective capacitance drops below that of the smallest capacitor in the series.

In contrast, when capacitors are connected in parallel, the total capacitance increases because the capacitances add directly together, leading to a higher capacity to store charge. The decrease in capacitance in series can be counterintuitive since one might expect that adding capacitors would increase overall storage capacity. However, the nature of how series connections function dictates a reduction in total capacitance.