capacitors and charge?

Question

if 3 capacitors are in series a 12micro farad, a 8 microfarad and a 24 microfarad.

If the total charge in the system is 24 coulombs,

What is the charge stored by the 8microfarad???

this is the problem
is it 4.36 or 24

Answer 1

4.36

Answer 2

I assume you mean 24 microcoulombs rather than 24 coulombs. Otherwise your capacitor would be charged to 3 million volts! The total charge is the same as the individual charge for capacitors in series. Therefore, each capacitor has a charge of 24 microcoulombs.

Answer 3

If capacitors are in series then charge on capacitors must be the same. Only the voltage across them varies.

So the charge on 8micro farad capacitor is 24Coulombs.

"Series connected Capacitors always have the same Charge"
Reference:
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/Capacitors/ParSeriesCap.html
http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/~lockhart/courses/p230l16.pdf

Based on the above concept only we will be able to derive at the equation for equivalent capacitance for capacitors connected in series.

Answer 4

In series each capacitior will have the same ( equal ) cahrge,

Therfore each has a charge of 8 colulomb.