Question

determine the total capacitance.
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo329/Chakron_stealth13/ee/610.jpg

Answer 1

This one shouldn't be too hard...you need to redraw it so that it's more obvious as to what's in parallel and what's in series.

Answer 2

how should i redraw it?

Answer 3

how do you know what's parallel and what's series?

Answer 4

That's essentially what parallel and series look like. In series, components are connected end-to-end and in parallel they are connected across each other.

When determine total capacitance or total resistance, you use different formulas for each part depending on whether that section has components that are in parallel or in series.

Do you know the formulas calculating capacitance in series and parallel?

Answer 5

yes. but what if the circuit is very difficult to decipher? it has diagonal lines. intersecting lines and so on.

Answer 6

You do it in parts. I find that redrawing often helps. I'll walk you through this one to get the general idea Just give me a minute to draw all this out.

Answer 7

The image above is redrawn in a way that makes the original circuit clearer for most folks.

Capacitance in parallel is simply additive:\[C_{parallel}=C_1+C_2+C_3+...\]
Therefore, I'd start by looking at the redrawn circuit and looking for capacitors that are in parallel and sum them up for each of those parts. When you simplify the drawing again you end up with:

Answer 8

thanks. but what about if its all connected? like in squares. http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo329/Chakron_stealth13/ee/capacitance.jpg

Answer 9

That's where it takes some practice to get it redrawn correctly

Answer 10

Are you good with the original problem now or should I continue with that one?

Answer 11

its ok with the first problem. i know how to redraw the diagonal lines. what about this ither one. it has no diagonal lines but i think they are all parallel when i redraw it.

Answer 12

You're on the right track. The idea for any of these problems it to rearrange and combine components (using the formulas) until there's nothing left to simplify.

In that problem, they will all be in parallel once you redraw it because every component has a junction which splits in two/three directions to connect to other components...and not just one. I hope that makes some sense...

Answer 13

so all in parallel? nothing would be in series?

Answer 14

The components will all be in some combination of parallel branches in that problem. I don't see anywhere that one component directly connects to only one other component.