What is the purpose of connecting equal-value resistors across power supply filter capacitors connected in series?
Why When electrolytic capacitors are stacked in series to withstand a high DC rail, their individual leakage currents differ, so without help the voltage would divide unevenly and one capacitor could exceed its rating. Equal-value resistors across each capacitor swamp that leakage and force the voltage to split evenly. The same resistor string doubles as a bleeder, draining the stored charge after the supply is switched off so the capacitors are safe to touch, and it also presents a small permanent load that keeps the supply voltage from soaring under no-load conditions.
Watch out Each single-purpose choice is true on its own, so picking just the equalizing function or just the bleeder function misses the other jobs the same resistors perform; the pool wants all three.
One resistor string, three jobs: equalize, bleed, load. When several separate answers are all true, take the all-of-these choice.