A 2 μF capacitor is connected in series with a 100 F resistor across a 115 V 400 Hz a.c. supply. Determine the impedance of the circuit and the current taken from the supply.
First we must find the reactance of the capacitor, X_C:
X_{c}={\frac{1}{2\pi fC}}={\frac{1}{6.28 \times 400\times2\times 10^{-6}}}={\frac{10^{6}}{5,024}}=199{\Omega}Now we can find the impedance of the C–R series circuit:
\scriptstyle Z={\sqrt{R^{2}+X^{2}}}={\sqrt{199^2}}+100^{2}={\sqrt{49,601}}=223~\OmegaThe current taken from the supply can now be found:
I_{S}={\frac{V_{S}}{Z}}={\frac{115}{223}}=0.52{\mathrm{A}}