What is the impact on total capacitance and charge drawn from the battery when capacitor 2 is removed from a series circuit?

When capacitor 2 is removed from a series circuit, the total capacitance of the circuit increases. This change occurs because, in a series configuration, the total capacitance (C_total) is determined by the formula:

1/C_total = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3...

By removing one of the capacitors (in this case, capacitor 2), the overall value of the expression on the right side decreases, leading to an increase in the total capacitance. Specifically, with fewer capacitors in series, there are fewer parallel pathways for charge to store, and thus the total capacitance becomes larger.

As for the charge drawn from the battery, capacitors in series effectively have the same charge across all the capacitors. When the total capacitance increases, and if the battery voltage remains constant, the total charge (Q) stored in the circuit is given by the equation Q = C_total * V. When C_total increases, Q also increases proportionally. Hence, the removal of capacitor 2 not only leads to an increase in total capacitance but also an increase in the charge drawn from the battery.

This outlines why the correct answer highlights that both total capacitance and the charge from the battery increase