Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION III-CENTRAL LUZON
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF OLONGAPO CITY
REGIONAL SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL-III
EAST KALAYAAN HEIGHTS, SUBIC BAY FREEPORT ZONE

GENERAL PHYSICS 2
CAPACITORS AND CAPACITANCE

This lesson will enhance your knowledge in Capacitors and Capacitance and critical
problem-solving skills in analyzing capacitors in different network configuration. It also tackles
the fundamental principles of Dielectrics and Capacitor’s Electric Field Energy.

WHAT WILL I EXPLORE?

At the end of the lessons, you should be able to:
1. Deduce the effects of simple capacitors (e.g., parallel-plate, spherical, cylindrical) on
the capacitance, charge, and potential difference when the size, potential difference,
or charge is changed (STEM_GP12EM-IIId-23)
2. Calculate the equivalent capacitance of a network of capacitors connected in
series/parallel (STEM_GP12EM-IIId-24)
3. Determine the total charge, the charge on, and the potential difference across each
capacitor in the network given the capacitors connected in series/parallel
(STEM_GP12EM-IIId-25)
4. Determine the potential energy stored inside the capacitor given the geometry and the
potential difference across the capacitor (STEM_GP12EM-IIId-26)
5. Describe the effects of inserting dielectric materials on the capacitance, charge, and
electric field of a capacitor (STEM_GP12EM-IIId-29)
6. Solve problems involving capacitors and dielectrics in contexts such as, but not limited
to, charged plates, batteries, and camera flashlamps. (STEM_GP12EM-IIId-30)

Look at your appliances at home. Can you imagine the complex circuitry that lies behind
your common household appliances? Do you know the underlying components that enables
it to operate at ease? These devices and appliances lessen our workloads in our daily life.

In this lesson, you will learn the use and function of capacitor and define capacitance.

Look at picture (a) shown above. What do you think is the use of batteries in our devices?
How important is energy storage in devices and modern electronics.

LESSON 1. CAPACITORS
Every complex and modern gadget made today consists of different electronic
components. One of those is known as a capacitor. A Capacitor is a component which has
the ability or “capacity” to store energy in the form of an electrical charge producing a potential
difference (Static Voltage) across its plates, much like a small rechargeable battery.

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 There are many different kinds of capacitors which are available from very small
capacitor beads used in resonance circuits to large power factor correction capacitors, but
they all do the same thing, they store charge.

(b) Capacitor symbol in a circuit

(a) Capacitors in different forms

In its basic form, a capacitor consists of two or more parallel conductive (metal) plates
which are not connected or touching each other but are electrically separated either by air or
by some form of a good insulating material such as waxed paper, mica, ceramic, plastic, or
some form of a liquid gel as used in electrolytic capacitors. The insulating layer between a
capacitors plates is commonly called the Dielectric.
Due to this insulating layer, DC current cannot flow through the capacitor as it blocks
it allowing instead a voltage to be present across the plates in the form of an electrical charge.
Capacitance is the ability of an object (in this case a circuit element) to store an electric
charge Q. The circuit element that has this property is called a capacitor. When a capacitor is
connected in series to a power supply (in this case, a DC power supply of potential V), charges
– Q and + Q are stored in the plates of the capacitor when they are connected to the negative
and positive terminals of the DC-power supply, respectively. The potential across the plates
of this capacitor is then equal to the potential V of the power supply. Capacitance C is defined
as the ratio of the charge Q = |±Q| stored in each plate to the potential V between the plates.

Mathematically, capacitance can be defined by

𝑄
𝐶= = ε0
𝑉
Where,
C, is the value of capacitance 𝜀0, the permittivity of
Farad unit free space 8.854 x10-12
Q, the value of charge stored A, surface area of
in coulomb plates in meters
squared (m2)
V, voltage across capacitors in d, distance between
volts the plates in meters

NOTE: Spend some time on watching the educational videos on Activity 2 and 5.

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ACTIVITY 1: WATCH A VIDEO
Direction: Watch the Video Capacitors Explained - The basics how capacitors work working
principle -YouTube.
The Video can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4EUwTwZ1

LESSON 2. CAPACITORS IN SERIES AND PARALLEL CONNECTION

In the previous lesson, you have learned about the definition of capacitance and the functions
of capacitors. You also learned about the basic operations of capacitor in DC set-up and its
mathematical definition.
In this lesson, you are going to analyze and calculate capacitance in different capacitor
circuit configurations such as series and parallel connection.
Capacitors can be installed in a circuit in two different configurations.

1. Series Connection
Electric charge Q is a conserved physical quantity. This means that the total charge in
a circuit stays the same. As a charge Q, therefore, passes through a SERIES (or a one-path
system) connection of capacitors, each capacitor gets the same total charge Q such that Q1
1 1 1
= Q , Q2 = Q and 1 = + + ⋯ + .
𝐶𝑡 𝐶1 𝐶2 𝐶𝑛

Capacitors in Series

2. Parallel Connection
When Q passes through a PARALLEL (or a multi-path system) connection of
capacitors, Q splits up according to the number of paths present. In this case, Q = Q1 + Q2
and 𝐶𝑡 = 𝐶1 + 𝐶2 + 𝐶3 + ⋯ + 𝐶𝑛

Capacitors in parallel

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ACTIVITY 2. WATCH A VIDEO 2
Direction: Watch a video through YouTube link below entitled “How To Solve Any
Circuit Problem With Capacitors In Series and Parallel Combinations - Physics”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-gPuw6JsxQ

LESSON 3. ENERGY STORED AND ELECTRIC FIELD ENERGY IN CAPACITORS

In the previous lesson, you learned to analyze and calculate the values of capacitance,
charge, and voltages across the nodes in series and parallel connection.
In this lesson, we will examine the energy stored in a capacitor as electrostatic
potential energy and its relationship to the charge and voltage
In a charged parallel-plate capacitor, the stored charges ±Q in the plates give rise an
electric field E between the plates. This is illustrated in the figure below:

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 Electric field in a charged parallel-plate capacitor

To gain insight into how this energy may be expressed (in terms of Q and V), consider
a charged, empty, parallel-plate capacitor; that is, a capacitor without a dielectric but with a
vacuum between its plates. The space between its plates has a volume Ad, and it is filled with
a uniform electrostatic field E. The total energy UC of the capacitor is contained within this
space. The energy density UE in this space is simply UC divided by the volume Ad. If we know
the energy density, the energy can be found as UC = UE (Ad). We will learn in Electromagnetic
Waves (after completing the study of Maxwell’s equations) that the energy density UE in a
region of free space occupied by an electrical field E depends only on the magnitude of the
field and is:

Multiplying the energy density by the volume between the plates, we obtain the amount of
energy stored between the plates of a parallel-plate capacitor

In this derivation, we used the fact that the electrical field between the plates is
𝑉 A 𝑄
uniform so that 𝐸 = and 𝐶 = ϵ0 .Because 𝐶 = we can express this result in other
𝑑 d 𝑉

equivalent forms:

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 Dielectric is an insulating material or a very poor conductor of electric current. When
dielectrics are placed in an electric field, practically no current flows in them because, unlike
metals, they have no loosely bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material.
Instead, electric polarization occurs. The positive charges within the dielectric are displaced
minutely in the direction of the electric field, and the negative charges are displaced minutely
in the direction opposite to the electric field. This slight separation of charge, or polarization,
reduces the electric field within the dielectric.

Dielectric in a parallel-plate capacitor

Note: RC circuit is a circuit with capacitors connected in series with a resistor and power source.

Summary

Capacitors play an important role in modern electronics. Its significance can be

observed with current development of technology. The mechanism of capacitor to charge
and discharge electrical energy enables modern devices to function accordingly.
We learned from this lesson the relationship of capacitance to charge and voltage.
Moreover, we were able to analyze the different behaviors of parameters in series and
parallel connections.

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REFERENCES
Canva. Accessed December 24, 2020. https://www.canva.com/education
Commission on Higher Education. 2016.General Physics 2 : Teaching Guide for Senior High
School.
https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/capacitor/cap_1.html
https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/University_Physics/Book%3A_University_Physics_(O
penStax)/Map%3A_University_Physics_II Thermodynamics_Electricity_and_Magnetism_(
OpenStax)/08%3A_Capacitance/8.04%3A_Energy_Stored_in_a_Capacitor#:~:text=The%20
energy%20UC%20stored,the%20electrical%20field%20builds%20up.
https://www.britannica.com/science/dielectric
https://www.circuitlab.com/editor/#?id=7pq5wm&from=homepage

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