Consider a series combination of a resistor R1, and two capacitors C1 and C2, driven by a voltage source. The series capacitor combination can be reduced to one single effective capacitor, and so the order of the system is one.
But order of a system is also equal to the number of independent initial conditions that can be assigned to state variables. Here both voltages across C1 and C2 can be independently assigned initial conditions. This predicts an order of 2 for the system. But still the transfer function (considering current as the output variable), has a denominator which is a first order polynomial in 's'. So what is the catch here? Is the system really a first order or a second order? Please help me out...
But order of a system is also equal to the number of independent initial conditions that can be assigned to state variables. Here both voltages across C1 and C2 can be independently assigned initial conditions. This predicts an order of 2 for the system. But still the transfer function (considering current as the output variable), has a denominator which is a first order polynomial in 's'. So what is the catch here? Is the system really a first order or a second order? Please help me out...