The two capacitor paradox or capacitor paradox is a paradox, or counterintuitive thought experiment, in electric circuit theory. The thought experiment is usually described as follows: Two identical capacitors are connected in parallel with an open switch between them. One of the capacitors is charged with a voltage of This problem has been discussed in electronics literature at least as far back as 1955. Unlike some other paradoxes in science, this paradox is not due to the underlying physics, but to the limitations of the 'ideal circuit'. There are several alternate versions of the paradox. One is the original circuit with the two capacitors initially charged with equal and opposite voltages $${displaystyle +V_{i}}$$ and $${displaystyle -V_{i}}$$. Another equivalent version is a single charged capacitor •.
Why does the equation for capacitance not take the position of wires?
Since the whole thing acts as one big capacitor, the charge wouldn't just gather at the capacitor, it would spread out over the whole wire and the capacitor, meaning there would be less charge in the capacitor. And if this is true why doesn't the equation for capacitance take the position of the wires into account?
Do wires have capacitance to other conductors?
There's a trick for making a low capacitance, high reactance, capacitor: just twist two wires together. These "gimmick" capacitors were perhaps more common in the past, but may still be found in the wild. So, yes, wires have capacitance to other conductors.
A wire isn't a capacitor. A capacitor has two conductors. Wire has one. It's right. The problem is that your brain is off on a tangent. Suppose there is no capacitance between two wires? This means there is "no connection at all." So that's the same thing as infinite impedance. Which is what you get from the formula if you plug in zero capacitance.
If you run an insulation test (high voltage earth to live/neutral) on a piece of equipment with a rubber cable, then touch the plug, you will very rapidly discover that pairs of wires (in a cable) are efficient capacitors. Two wires do make a capacitor. Just a very small one. For parallel plates, capacitance can be calculated as: Where:
Is capacitance always between two conductors?
Capacitance is always between two conductors. Yes I was talking about capacitance between two wires, but even if there is a single wire held in free air, it will have capacitive coupling to surroundings, like earth or humans, so it will have some femtofarads of capacitance.
Should a simple wire have a higher reactive capacitance than a capacitor?
From this formula, I would expect their reactive capacitance to be small, and the reactive capacitance of elements with low capacitance to become very high. That is, a simple wire should always have a much higher reactive capacitance than a capacitor. What am I getting wrong here?