Q-4

Capacitance and Dielectrics

PowerPoint® Lectures for

University Physics, 14th Edition, Global Edition
– Hugh D. Young and Roger A. Freedman Lectures by Jason Harlow
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd.
 At the end of the lesson 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)

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 Learning Goals for Chapter 24
Looking forward at …
• the nature of capacitors, and how to calculate a quantity that
measures their ability to store charge.
• how to analyze capacitors connected in a network.
• how to calculate the amount of energy stored in a capacitor.
• what dielectrics are, and how they make capacitors more
effective.
• how to use Gauss’s laws when dielectrics are present.

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 Introduction
• In flash photography, the energy used to make the flash is
stored in a capacitor, which consists of two closely spaced
conductors that carry opposite charges.
• The energy of a capacitor is actually stored in the electric
field.

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 Introduction

Capacitors in a circuit

Capacitors in different forms

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 Capacitors
• Any two conductors
separated by an insulator (or
a vacuum) form a capacitor.
• When the capacitor is
charged, it means the two
conductors have charges with
equal magnitude and
opposite sign, and the net
charge on the capacitor as a
whole is zero.

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 Capacitors
• 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.

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 Capacitors and capacitance
• One common way to charge a capacitor is to connect the two
conductors to opposite terminals of a battery.
• This gives a potential difference Vab between the conductors
that is equal to the voltage of the battery.
• If we change the magnitude of charge on each conductor, the
potential difference between conductors changes; however,
the ratio of charge to potential difference does not change.
• This ratio is called the capacitance C of the capacitor:

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 Capacitors
• 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.

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 Parallel-plate capacitor
• A parallel-plate capacitor consists of two parallel conducting
plates separated by a distance that is small compared to their
dimensions.

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 Parallel-plate capacitor
• The field between the plates of a parallel-plate capacitor is
essentially uniform, and the charges on the plates are
uniformly distributed over their opposing surfaces.
• When the region between the plates is empty, the
capacitance is:

• The capacitance depends on only the geometry of the

capacitor.
• The quantities A and d are constants for a given capacitor,
and is a universal constant.
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 Condenser microphones
• Inside a condenser microphone
is a capacitor with one rigid
plate and one flexible plate.
• The two plates are kept at a
constant potential difference.
• Sound waves cause the flexible
plate to move back and forth,
varying the capacitance C and causing charge to flow to and
from the capacitor.
• Thus a sound wave is converted to a charge flow that can be
amplified and recorded digitally.

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 Units of capacitance
• The SI unit of capacitance is the farad, F.
1 F = 1 C/V = 1 C2/N ∙ m = 1 C2/J
• One farad is a very large capacitance.
• For the commercial capacitors
shown in the photograph,
C is measured in microfarads

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 Capacitors in series: Slide 1 of 3
• Capacitors are in series if they are connected one after the
other, as illustrated.
• The equivalent single capacitor is shown on the next slide.

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 Capacitors in series: Slide 2 of 3

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 Capacitors in series: Slide 3 of 3
• When several capacitors are connected in series, the
magnitude of charge is the same on all plates of all the
capacitors.
• The potential differences of the individual capacitors add to
give the total potential difference across the series
combination: Vtotal = V1 + V2 + V3 + ∙ ∙ ∙
• The equivalent capacitance of the series combination is
given by:

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 Capacitors in parallel: Slide 1 of 3
• Capacitors are connected in parallel between a and b if the
potential difference Vab is the same for all the capacitors.

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 Capacitors in parallel: Slide 2 of 3
• This is the equivalent capacitor of two capacitors connected
in parallel.

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 Capacitors in parallel: Slide 3 of 3
• When several capacitors are connected in parallel, the
potential differences are the same for all the capacitors.
• The charges on the individual capacitors add to give the total
charge on the parallel combination:
Qtotal = Q1 + Q2 + Q3 + ∙ ∙ ∙
• The equivalent capacitance of the parallel combination is
given by:

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 Energy stored in a capacitor
• The potential energy stored in a capacitor is:

• The capacitor energy is stored in the electric field between

the plates.
• The energy density is:

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 Energy stored in a capacitor
• A practical application of capacitors is their ability to store
energy and release it quickly.
• An extreme example of the same principle is the Z machine
at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, which is
used in experiments in controlled nuclear fusion.
• The Z machine uses a large number of capacitors in parallel
to give a tremendous equivalent capacitance.
• The arcs shown here are
produced when the capacitors
discharge their energy into a
target, which is heated to a
temperature higher than
2 × 109 K.
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 Dielectrics
• Most capacitors have a nonconducting material, or dielectric,
between their conducting plates.
• A common type of capacitor uses long strips of metal foil for
the plates, separated by strips of plastic sheet such as Mylar.

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 Dielectrics increase capacitance: Slide 1 of 2
• Consider an electrometer connected across a charged
capacitor, with magnitude of charge Q on each plate and
potential difference V0.

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 Dielectrics increase capacitance: Slide 2 of 2
• When we insert an uncharged sheet of dielectric, such as
glass, paraffin, or polystyrene, between the plates, the
potential difference decreases to a smaller value V.
• Since Q is unchanged, the capacitance C = Q/V is increased
with the dielectric.

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 Dielectrics
• When a dielectric is inserted
between the plates of a
capacitor, the electric field
decreases.
• This is due to polarization of
the charge within the dielectric,
which results in induced
surface charges, as shown.

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 The dielectric constant
• When an insulating material is inserted between the plates of
a capacitor whose original capacitance is C0, the new
capacitance is greater by a factor K, where K is the dielectric
constant of the material.

• The energy density in the capacitor also increases:

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 Table 24.1—Some dielectric constants

Material K
Vacuum 1
Air (1 atm) 1.00059
Teflon 2.1
Mylar 3.1
Glass 5 – 10
Glycerin 42.5
Water 80.4
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 Dielectric breakdown
• If the electric field is strong enough, dielectric breakdown
occurs and the dielectric becomes a conductor.
• The dielectric strength is the maximum electric field the
material can withstand before breakdown occurs.
• For example, Pyrex glass has a dielectric constant of K = 4.7,
and a dielectric strength of Em = 1 × 107 V/m.
• Dry air has a dielectric constant of
K = 1.00059 and a dielectric
strength of Em = 3 × 106 V/m.

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 Molecular model of induced charge
• Some molecules, such as H2O and N2O, form natural electric
dipoles, and the molecule is called a polar molecule.
• When no electric field is present in a gas or liquid with polar
molecules, the molecules are oriented randomly (a).
• In an electric field, however, they tend to orient themselves as
in (b).

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 Molecular model of induced charge
• Even a molecule that is not ordinarily polar (a) becomes a
dipole when it is placed in an electric field because the field
pushes the positive charges in the molecules in the direction
of the field and pushes the negative charges in the opposite
direction (b).
• Such dipoles are called induced dipoles.

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 Molecular model of induced charge
• The polarization of molecules
within a dielectric leads to the
formation of a layer of charge
on each surface of the
dielectric material.
• These layers have a surface
charge density of magnitude σi.

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 Behavior of a dielectric in four steps

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 Neutral sphere attracted to a charged sphere
• Polarization is the reason a
charged body can exert a
force on an uncharged
nonconducting body such as
a bit of paper or a pith ball.
• The force is always
attractive.

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 Gauss’s law in dielectrics
• The figure shows a close-up of the
left-hand plate in a capacitor.
• The Gaussian surface is a rectangular
box that lies half in the conductor
and half in the dielectric.
• Gauss’s law becomes:

where Qencl-free is the total free charge

(not bound charge) enclosed by the
Gaussian surface.
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