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Polarized capacitors in series

Psin545

Hey everyone, 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but my question today is regarding polarized capacitors in series. I’m just curious what, if anything, is happening to the positive and negative charges on the capacitors plates where the two capacitors would meet? 

Trying to take a stab at it, I picture the outermost plates begin to develop a net positive and net negative charge on their plates,, but I can’t visualize what would happen to any charges on the plates in the middle where the two capacitors meet. Would they have forces pushing and pulling on them keeping them in place? Sorry again if this seems stupid I just can’t visualize it. In my mind I’m picturing for example the side accumulating negative charges is repelling the negative charges on its other plate but then those charges would have negative charges pushing them away from the other “middle” plate of the other capacitor. But I feel like there is probably way more to it and that I’m approaching this the wrong way. 

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  • When you connect several capacitors in series to a battery with voltage V, each of the capacitors acquires an identical charge Q. The charge on the plate connected to the positive terminal of the battery is +Q and the charge on the plate connected to the negative terminal is −Q. Charges are then induced on the other plates so that the sum of the charges on all plates and the sum of the charges on any pair of capacitor plates is zero. However, the potential drop V=Q/C on one capacitor can be different from the potential drop on another capacitor, because capacitors can generally have different capacitances. Generally, any number of series-connected capacitors is equivalent to a capacitor whose equivalent capacitance is less than the smallest of the capacitances in the series combination.

  • in reply to javagoza
    javagoza said:
    When you connect several capacitors in series to a battery with voltage V, each of the capacitors acquires an identical charge Q.

    This is correct. And when in doubt, bring the multimeter out:

Reply
  • in reply to javagoza
    javagoza said:
    When you connect several capacitors in series to a battery with voltage V, each of the capacitors acquires an identical charge Q.

    This is correct. And when in doubt, bring the multimeter out:

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