Question

When a charged capacitor is connected with an uncharged capacitor, then which of the following is/are correct.
(A). The magnitude of charge on the charged capacitor decreases.
(B). A steady state is obtained after which no further flow of charges occurs
(C). The total charge remains conserved
(D). All of these above

Answer 1

Hint: In this question use the concept that the capacitance of both the capacitors are assumed to be constant and thus the charge, voltage and capacitance are related to each other as Q = CV, thus greater will be the charge greater will be the potential and thus electricity always flow from a region of higher potential to a lower potential. Electricity is nothing but the flow of charge, this concept will help getting the right answer.

Complete step-by-step solution -

Whenever a charged capacitor is connected to an uncharged capacitor there is a flow of electrons from charged to uncharged until a steady state situation is arrived. I.e. After this no transfer of charge happens i.e. both the capacitors are in equilibrium condition.
So in this process the capacitor which is more charged starts decreasing the magnitude of charges and the capacitor which is less charged starts gaining the magnitude of charges till equilibrium position comes.
The flow of charges happens according to the columns law that the total charge present in the capacitor is the product of the capacitance of capacitor and the voltage stored in the capacitor.
I.e. Q = CV Columbs.
Here the capacitance of the capacitor always remains constant often measured in milli or micro Farads.
So only the voltage of the capacitor changes so that the total charge of the capacitor changes till a steady state is obtained after which no further flow of charges occurs.
But during this whole procedure i.e. charged gained by the less charged capacitor and charge lost by the extra charged capacitor remains conserved to the original charge.
I.e. when there is no connection between the charges the total charge in two capacitors is equal to the sum of charges after connection, but individual charges changed, so that the total charge remains conserved.
So this is the required answer.

Hence all of the given options are correct.

Note: The common configuration of two capacitor systems is parallel plate capacitors when the plates of the two capacitors are placed parallel to each other. The general value of the capacitance of a capacitor configuration with plates separated at some “d” distance and if air is the medium between them is given as $C = \dfrac{{{ \in _0}A}}{d}$. The electric current is taken in the direction of flow of electrons and is in exactly the opposite direction to flow of electrons.