Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) Practice Exam

Resistors in parallel and capacitors in series exhibit similar behaviors in terms of their overall effects on the total current or voltage in an electrical circuit.

In a parallel circuit, the total resistance decreases as more resistors are added. This is because each resistor provides an alternative pathway for current flow. The overall effect is that the total resistance can be calculated using the formula:

1/R_total = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3 + ...

This results in a lower equivalent resistance than any individual resistor in the circuit.

Conversely, when capacitors are connected in series, the total capacitance also decreases with the addition of more capacitors. This is due to the fact that the charge stored by each capacitor is the same, but the voltage across each capacitor adds up, leading to a situation in which the total capacitance can be found using:

1/C_total = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3 + ...

As a result, the total capacitance in series is lower than that of any individual capacitor.

Thus, while resistors in parallel reduce total resistance, capacitors in series reduce total capacitance. Despite this opposite behavior regarding resistance and capacitance, the analogy lies in how both