What this topic covers

Capacitance is topic 19 of the Cambridge 9702 syllabus (2025–2027), covering capacitors and capacitance, energy stored in a capacitor and capacitor discharge. It is A Level content, examined in Paper 4 (A Level Structured Questions), which carries 38.5% of the A Level. The ideas that cause most difficulty are combining capacitors in series and parallel, where the rules are the reverse of those for resistors, and recognising that energy stored is the area under a potential difference–charge graph, W = ½QV. Discharge through a resistor requires confident use of exponential relationships and the time constant τ = RC, including interpreting graphs and logarithmic plots. Questions often combine several of these ideas, so practising complete past-paper questions is essential.

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Questions in this topic

• 9702/42/O/N/24 Q7 — Capacitance and energy in capacitors · 10 marks
• 9702/42/M/J/24 Q6 — Capacitance in series and parallel · 10 marks
• 9702/43/M/J/24 Q6 — capacitor discharge · 10 marks
• 9702/42/O/N/23 Q6 — capacitors and discharging · 9 marks
• 9702/41/M/J/23 Q5 — half-wave rectification · 9 marks
• 9702/42/M/J/23 Q5 — Capacitors in circuits · 9 marks
• 9702/43/M/J/23 Q5 — half-wave rectification · 9 marks
• 9702/42/F/M/23 Q5 — capacitor discharge · 10 marks
• 9702/41/O/N/22 Q5 — Capacitor discharge and induced e.m.f. · 11 marks
• 9702/42/O/N/22 Q6 — capacitor discharge · 10 marks
• 9702/43/O/N/22 Q5 — Capacitor discharge and induced e.m.f. · 11 marks
• 9702/42/M/J/22 Q5 — Capacitance and energy in capacitors · 11 marks
• 9702/42/F/M/22 Q5 — Capacitors and circuits · 10 marks
• 9702/41/O/N/21 Q6 — Capacitance and energy storage · 5 marks
• 9702/42/O/N/21 Q6 — electric potential and capacitance · 7 marks
• 9702/43/O/N/21 Q6 — Capacitance and energy · 5 marks
• 9702/41/M/J/21 Q7 — capacitance and circuits · 9 marks
• 9702/42/M/J/21 Q6 — Capacitance and circuits · 8 marks
• 9702/43/M/J/21 Q7 — Capacitance and circuits · 9 marks
• 9702/42/F/M/21 Q6 — electric fields and capacitance · 7 marks
• 9702/41/O/N/20 Q6 — Capacitance · 7 marks
• 9702/42/O/N/20 Q6 — Capacitance and capacitors · 7 marks
• 9702/43/O/N/20 Q6 — Capacitance · 7 marks
• 9702/42/F/M/20 Q6 — electric fields and capacitance · 8 marks
• 9702/41/M/J/19 Q6 — capacitors in circuits · 7 marks
• 9702/43/M/J/19 Q6 — Capacitors in circuits · 7 marks
• 9702/42/F/M/19 Q6 — Capacitance and circuits · 4 marks
• 9702/41/M/J/18 Q7 — Capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor · 9 marks
• 9702/42/M/J/18 Q6 — Capacitance of capacitors · 10 marks
• 9702/43/M/J/18 Q7 — capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor · 9 marks

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