Capacitance

What is Capacitance?
Consider two conductors carrying charges
of equal magnitude and opposite sign, as
shown in Figure. Such a combination of
two conductors is called a capacitor. The
conductors are called plates. If the
conductors carry charges of equal
magnitude and opposite sign, a potential
difference ΔV exists between them.
The capacitance C of a capacitor is
defined as the ratio of the magnitude of
the charge on either conductor to the
magnitude of the potential difference
between the conductors:

October 10, 2007

 Capacitance in Farads
One farad (F) is the capacitance C of a conductor
that holds one coulomb of charge for each volt of
potential.
Q coulomb (C)
C ; farad (F) 
V volt (V)

Example: When 40 C of charge are placed on a conductor,

the potential is 8 V. What is the capacitance?

C = 5 F
 Capacitance of point charge
Two parallel metallic plates of equal
area A are separated by a distance d, as
shown in Figure. One plate carries a
charge Q, and the other carries a charge
-Q.
where σ is the magnitude of surface charge
density (charge per unit area) on each plate
The electric field between the plates is
uniform, the magnitude of the potential
difference between the plates equals Ed

October 10, 2007

If A is in square meters and d in meters, C is in
farads. The units of ε are C 2/N.m2, so that:
O o P 2P

1F = 1C2/N.m = 1C2/J
P

Because 1 V = 1 J/C (energy per unit charge), this

is consistent with our definition F = C/V. Finally,
the units of εo can be expressed as:
1C2/N.m2= 1F/m
2

October 10, 2007

October 10, 2007
 Capacitors in Parallel
 No difference between

3C

and

V
C C C
n

Capacitors in parallel: Ceq   C j

j 1

October 10, 2007

25.4: Capacitors in Parallel:
 Capacitors in Series
 There is a difference between and

C
3C
C

C
 Charge on lower plate of one
and upper plate of next are
equal and opposite. (show by
gaussian surface around the two
plates).
1 n
1
Capacitors in series: C   C
 Total charge is q, but voltage on
each is only V/3. j 1
eq j

October 10, 2007

 Capacitors in Series
 To see the series formula,
consider the individual voltages
across each capacitor
q q q
V1  , V2  , V3 
C1 C2 C3

 The sum of these voltages is

the total voltage of the battery,
V q q q
V  V1  V2  V3   
C1 C2 C3

 Since V/q = 1/Ceq, we have

V 1 1 1 1
    October 10, 2007
q C eq C 1 C 2 C 3
 Three Capacitors in Series
3. The equivalent capacitance for two
1
capacitors in series is C    C  C .
eq 1
CC
1
1 2

1 2
What is the equivalent capacitance for
C1 C2

three capacitors in series?

C1C2C3
A. Ceq  C1  C2  C3
C1  C2  C3 D. Ceq 
C1C2C3
C1C2  C2C3  C1C3
B. Ceq  C1C2C3
C1  C2  C3 E. Ceq 
C1C2  C2C3  C3C1
C1C2  C2C3  C3C1
C. Ceq 
C1C2C3
October 10, 2007
 Example Capacitor Circuit
Step 1 Step 2

C1 C2 C12
parallel
V V series V C123

C3 C3

C12  C1  C2 1 1 1 C12C3
  C123 
C123 C12 C3 C12  C3

C1 = 12.0 F, C2 = 5.3 F, C3 = 4.5 F C123 = (12 + 5.3)4.5/(12+5.3+4.5) F = 3.57 F

October 10, 2007

 Capacitors Store Energy
 When charges flow from the battery, energy
stored in the battery is lost. Where does it V=1.5 V
go? _ +
 One way to calculate the potential energy U
of a charged capacitor to calculate the work
W required to charge it. The final charge Q
and the final potential difference V are
+ charges
related by : Q = CV
 The work dW required to transfer an additional +
element of charge dq is:
1.5 V
 dw = V dq = qdq/C battery
 The total work W needed to increase the charge q _
from zero to a final value Q is:
+ charges
 Capacitors Store Energy
 Another way to think about the stored energy is to
consider it to be stored in the electric field itself.
 The total energy in a parallel plate capacitor is
0A 2
U  1
2
2
CV  V
2d
 The volume of space filled by the electric field in the
capacitor is vol = Ad, so the energy density is
2
U 0A V 
u   V 2
 1
2 0 
vol 2 dAd  d 
 
 But V    E  ds  Ed for a parallel plate capacitor,
so

u  1
2 0E 2

Energy stored in electric field

 Dielectrics
 You may have wondered why we write 0 (permittivity of
free space), with a little zero subscript. It turns out that
other materials (water, paper, plastic, even air) have
different permittivities  = 0. The  is called the dielectric
constant, and is a unitless number. For air,  = 1.00054 (so
 for air is for our purposes the same as for “free space.”)

 When we insert a sheet of dielectric such as glass, paraffin,

or polystyrene, between the plates, the potential difference
decrease to a smaller value v. When we remove the
dielectric, the potential difference returns to its original
value Vo
October 10, 2007
 Dielectric Constant 
 The original capacitance C O is given by C O =
R R R R

Material
Q/V o , and capacitance C with the dielectric
R R

Air 1.00054
present is C = Q/V. The charge Q is the same
in both cases, and V is less than V o , so it is
R R
Polystyrene 2.6

concluded that the capacitance C with the Paper 3.5

dielectric present is greater than C o . When R R Transformer 4.5

Oil
the space between plates is completely filled
Pyrex 4.7
by the dielectric, the ratio of C to C o (equal to
R R

Ruby Mica 5.4

the ratio of V o to V) is called the “dielectric
R R

constant” of the material K: Porcelain 6.5

Silicon 12
K = C/Co
Germanium 16
When the charge is constant the potential is reduced by Ethanol 25
a factor K, K = VO/V
Water (20º 80.4
 The nice thing about this is that we can C)

increase the capacitance of a parallel plate Water (50º 78.5

C)
capacitor by filling the space with a dielectric:
Titania 130
 0 A Ceramic
C   C StrontiumOctober
31010, 2007
d Titanate
 What Happens When You Insert a
Dielectric?
 With battery attached, V=const, so  With battery disconnected, q=const,
more charge flows to the capacitor so voltage (for given q) drops.

q  CV q
V
C

q  CV q
V 
C
 Advantages of Dielectrics

 Smaller plate separation

without contact.
 Increases capacitance of a
capacitor.
 Higher voltages can be used
without breakdown.
 Summary
 Capacitance says how much charge is on an arrangement of
conductors for a given potential. q  CV
Capacitance depends only on geometry

0A
 Parallel Plate Capacitor C 
d
 Units, F (farad) = C2/Nm or C/V (note 0 = 8.85 pF/m)
 Capacitors in parallel in series
n
1 n
1
C eq   C j
C
 
j 1 C j
j 1 eq

 Energy and energy density stored by capacitor

U  12 CV 2 u  12  0 E 2

 Dielectric constant increases capacitance due to induced, opposing

October 10, 2007
field. C   C  is a unitless number.