A student has a battery with emf ε and two uncharged capacitors with capacitances 2C and 3C. The student also has plenty of connecting wires. What is the highest voltage that can be obtained using this equipment?
We received relatively few correct solutions to our December Challenge, For want of a nail…* We are pleased to recognize the following successful solvers:
Guidelines for contributors
Many thanks to all contributors and we hope to hear from many more of you in the future!
Note: we always welcome and appreciate reader-contributed original Challenges!
The solutions to the past Challenges can be found here: https://aapt.scitation.org/topic/collections/physics-challenge. Please note that AAPT membership may be required to view the files.
Boris Korsunsky, Column Editor
*Adapted from The Problems of Moscow Physics Olympiads, edited by M. Semenov and V. Yakuta (MCCME, Moscow, 2006).