What happens to the total capacitance when capacitors are connected in series?

When capacitors are connected in series, the total capacitance decreases because the overall ability of the network to store electrical charge is reduced. In a series configuration, the inverse of the total capacitance (C_total) is equal to the sum of the inverses of the individual capacitances (C1, C2, C3, ...). Mathematically, this can be expressed as:

[

\frac{1}{C_{total}} = \frac{1}{C_1} + \frac{1}{C_2} + \frac{1}{C_3} + \ldots

]

This means that as more capacitors are added in series, they add more resistance to the flow of charge, resulting in a decrease in the total capacitance. Each capacitor can only charge to the same voltage as the others in the series, and since the total voltage across the series combination is the sum of the voltages across each capacitor, the effective capacity for the entire series is diminished. Therefore, when capacitors are connected in series, the overall capacitance behaves such that it is less than the smallest individual capacitor in the series.