Question

An electric lamp is connected in series with a capacitor and an AC source is glowing with a certain brightness. How does the brightness of the lamp change on increasing the capacitance ?

Answer 1

Impedance, Z = \(\sqrt{R^{2}+\frac{1}{\omega^{2} C^{2}}}\), where R is the resistance of the lamp, w is the angular frequency of AC and C is the capacitance of the capacitor connected in series with the AC source and the lamp. When C is increased, \(\) decreases. Hence, Z increases.
Power factor, cos Φ = \(\frac{R}{Z}\)
As Z increases, the power factor decreases.
Now, the average power over one cycle,
P_av = v_rms i_rms cos Φ
= V_rms \(\left(\frac{V_{\mathrm{rms}}}{Z}\right)\) cos Φ
= \(\frac{V_{\mathrm{rms}}^{2}}{\mathrm{Z}} \cos \phi\)
∴ P_av decreases as Z increases and cos Φ decreases.
As the current through the lamp \(\left(\frac{V_{\mathrm{rms}}}{Z}\right)\) decreases, the brightness of the lamp will decrease when C is increased