When two capacitors are connected in parallel, how is their capacitance calculated?

When capacitors are connected in parallel, their overall capacitance is calculated by summing their individual capacitance values. This is due to the way capacitors function in this configuration. In a parallel arrangement, the voltage across each capacitor remains the same, while the total charge stored in the system is the sum of the charge stored in each capacitor.

The capacitance of a capacitor is defined as the amount of charge it can store per unit voltage, expressed mathematically as ( C = \frac{Q}{V} ). When capacitors are connected in parallel, the total capacitance (C_total) can be expressed as:

[ C_{total} = C_1 + C_2 + C_3 + ... + C_n ]

This means that the effective capacitance increases as more capacitors are added in parallel, allowing the system to store more charge at the same voltage. This principle is critical to understanding how different arrangements of capacitors can affect circuit performance, particularly in applications where capacitance plays a key role, such as in filtering or timing circuits.