If the value of a capacitor is increased, what happens to the capacitive reactance?

When the value of a capacitor is increased, the capacitive reactance decreases. Capacitive reactance is calculated using the formula:

[ X_C = \frac{1}{2\pi f C} ]

where ( X_C ) represents the capacitive reactance, ( f ) is the frequency of the AC signal, and ( C ) is the capacitance in farads. According to this equation, it is evident that capacitive reactance is inversely proportional to capacitance. Therefore, if the capacitance ( C ) is increased while the frequency ( f ) remains constant, the reactance ( X_C ) will decrease.

This relationship illustrates that a larger capacitance allows a capacitor to store more charge for the same voltage, resulting in less opposition to the AC current flow. As a result, as the capacitance increases, the capacitive reactance diminishes, allowing more current to pass through the capacitor in an AC circuit.