How Do You Calculate Total Energy Stored in a Circuit System?

[goWlfpack]

Homework Statement

for this problem i found all of the separate capacitence for each capacitor, each potential difference, and each charge on each capacitor but I am not sure how to get the total energy stored for the whole system. does anybody know the correct equation

Homework Equations

dunno

The Attempt at a Solution

i tried using the total capacitance of the system and the total voltage.. to no avail

 

[tiny-tim]

for this problem i found all of the separate capacitence for each capacitor, each potential difference, and each charge on each capacitor but I am not sure how to get the total energy stored for the whole system. does anybody know the correct equation

Hi goWlfpack!

Energy in capacitor = (1/2)CV²

 

[Redbelly98]

The equation for energy in a capacitor should be in any physics textbook that talks about capacitors. Try looking carefully through that section in your book.

 

[goWlfpack]

ok so i used the equation total energy = (1/2)CV^2

but it says i am off by a multiple of ten.

can anybody help me with the conversion.
the capacitance is in micro farads
the potential difference is in volts
and they want the answer in looks like milli joules

 

[Redbelly98]

Did it say a multiple of ten or a power of ten?

I would convert your numbers to Farads and Volts, plug those into the equation to get an energy in Joules, then convert that to mJ.

 

[goWlfpack]

thanks guys! got it! that's exactly what i did. converted everything to the standard. Thanks so much!