Question

For high frequency, a capacitor offers (a) More reactance (b) Less reactance (c) Zero reactance (d) Infinite reactance

Short answer

(b) Less reactance

Step-by-step solution

1. Understanding Capacitive Reactance

Capacitive reactance refers to the capacitor's resistance to alternating current (AC) signals. This resistance changes based on the frequency of the input signal. To understand how a capacitor behaves with high-frequency signals, we need to consider the formula for capacitive reactance, which is given by: \(X_C = \frac{1}{2\pi fC}\) Here, \(X_C\) is the capacitive reactance, \(f\) is the frequency of the signal, and \(C\) is the capacitor's capacitance.

2. Analyzing the Capacitive Reactance Formula for High Frequencies

Let's consider the capacitive reactance formula and analyze how \(X_C\) changes based on the frequency \(f\). Since \(X_C\) is inversely proportional to the frequency, we can deduce that as the frequency of the input signal increases, the capacitive reactance decreases, and vice versa. Therefore, for high-frequency signals, a capacitor would offer a lower reactance. Now that we have analyzed the behavior of a capacitor for high-frequency signals, we can choose the correct option from the given alternatives.

3. Final Selection

Based on our analysis, we can select the correct option: (b) Less reactance A capacitor offers less reactance for high-frequency input signals.