Why is the amount of charge on every capacitor in series equal, regardless that capacitance values of capacitors are not the same? What really happens here so they are the same?
simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
Electronic – Why is charge the same on every capacitor in series
capacitancecapacitorcircuit analysis
Related Solutions
It's easy. A capacitor doesn't store charge, it stores energy. The net charge in a complete capacitor (rather than considering a single plate or the insulator) never changes. An increase of negative charge on one plate is exactly balanced by a decrease in negative charge on the other plate. Therefore, as current enters one terminal an equal current must leave the other terminal.
The short-circuit in red puts the 2 points A and B at the same voltage, bypassing the capacitor C2.
Best Answer
Charge cannot be created or destroyed. Since you only have one possible current path through all the capacitors (and current is just flowing charge) the charge on all 3 capacitors has to be the same. The capacitance of the capacitor indicates how much voltage a particular amount of charge corresponds to Q/C = V. Put more charge into a cap, get a bigger voltage difference. Put the same charge in a smaller cap, get a bigger voltage difference. So what happens in your circuit is that the charge is distributed evenly, but the applied voltage is distributed according to the capacitor sizes, with the smallest cap ending up with the largest fraction of the applied voltage.