A parallel plate capacitor of capacitance C is charged to a potential V. It is then connected to another uncharged capacitor having the same capacitance. Find out the ratio of the energy stored in the combined system to that stored initially in the single capacitor.

Question

Philoid · Accepted Answer

Initially, the energy stored in the capacitor is,

And the charge on the capacitor is q = CV,

When the capacitor is connected to another capacitor of same capacitance the charge gets redistributed equally amongst the two capacitors, q’ = CV/2,

The new energy stored in each capacitor is,

Total Energy stored in the combined system,

Ratio of the energy stored in the combined system to that stored initially in the single capacitor is,