Laboratory Preparation for
Capacitors in Parallel and Series
Circuits and Diagrams
Draw a circuit diagram of a simple circuit having a resistor and a capacitor in series.
Draw a circuit diagram of a circuit containing two capacitors in parallel.
Draw a diagram of a circuit containing two capacitors in series.
Behavior of capacitors
What happens to the amount of charge in a capacitor when it is connected to a DC
power supply? Why?
If a capacitor is ʻfullʼ of charge, would current continue to flow in that part of the circuit?
(In other words, would charge continue to move into the capacitor?)
Purpose of the resistor
What is the purpose of placing a resistor in the circuit with a capacitor? (Hint: How does
a resistor affect charge flow (current)?)
Graphically determining charge stored in a capacitor
The amount of charge stored in a capacitor can be determined from the area
underneath a graph of current versus time. How much charge is stored in the capacitor
that gave the data below:
Calculating charge stored in a capacitor
What is the relationship between the charge stored in a capacitor, the voltage applied to
the capacitor, and the capacitance?
If a capacitor has a capacitance of 300 µF and a potential of 5.0 V is applied, how much
charge will be stored in the capacitor?