Capacitance

• Capacitors
• Calculating capacitance
• Energy stored in a capacitor
• Capacitors with dielectric materials
• Dielectrics and Gauss’ Law
• Sample Problems
The definition of capacitance
• Capacitor: two conductors (separated by an insulator)
• usually oppositely charged

a b
+Q -Q

• The capacitance, C, of a capacitor is defined as a ratio of

the magnitude of a charge on either conductor to the
magnitude of the potential difference between the
conductors
Q dQ
C or C  (voltage-dependent capacitor)
V dV
Capacitance
• Capacitance depends
only on GEOMETRICAL
factors and on the
MATERIAL that
separates the two
+Q
conductors -Q
• e.g. Area of conductors,
separation, whether the
space in between is (We first focus on capacitors
filled with air, plastic, where gap is filled by AIR!)

etc.
 Electrolytic (1940-70) Paper (1940-70)
Electrolytic (new)

Capacitors

Variable
air, mica

Mica
Ceramic (1930 on) (1930-50)
Tantalum (1980 on)
1. A capacitor is basically two parallel
conducting plates with insulating
material in between. The capacitor
doesn’t have to look like metal
plates.
2. When a capacitor is connected to an
external potential, charges flow
onto the plates and create a
potential difference between the Capacitor for use in
plates. high-performance
audio systems.
3. Capacitors in circuits
symbols
- -
analysis follow from
conservation of energy
+-
conservation of charge
Variable Capacitors
• Cross-sectional area is changed as one set of
plates are rotated with respect to the other.

Symbol for
Varied Capacitor

http://www.tpub.com/neets/book2/3f.htm
 What are capacitors good for?
•They store energy
•The energy stored is not extremely large, and it tends to leak away over
time
•Gasoline or fuel cells are better for this purpose
•They can release their energy very quickly
•Camera flashes, defibrillators, research uses
•They resist changes in voltage
•Power supplies for electronic devices, etc.
•They can be used for timing, frequency filtering, etc.
•In conjunction with other parts
 Units of capacitance
• The unit of C is the farad (F), but
most capacitors have values of C
ranging from picofarads to
microfarads (pF to F).

1 F 1C V

• Recall, micro 10-6, nano 10-9,

pico 10-12
• If the external potential is
disconnected, charges remain on the
plates, so capacitors are good for
storing charge (and energy).

4/6/2021 8
 Parallel Plate Capacitor
We want capacitance: C=Q/V
E field between the plates: (Gauss’ Law) Area of each plate = A
 Q Separation = d
E  charge/area =  = Q/A
0 0 A

Relate E to potential difference V:

d d
Q Qd
V   E  dx   dx 
0  A
0 0
0 A
What is the capacitance C?
+Q
Q 0 A -Q
C 
V d
Parallel Plate Capacitor -- example
• A huge parallel plate capacitor consists
of two square metal plates of side 50 cm,
separated by an air gap of 1 mm
• What is the capacitance?
• C = 0A/d =
(8.85 x 10-12 F/m)(0.25 m2)/(0.001
m)
= 2.21 x 10-9 F
Lesson: difficult to get large
(small!!) values of capacitance without
special tricks!
 Parallel Plate Capacitor
• Almost all capacitors are
parallel plate capacitors: two
conducting plates each of area A
area A a constant distance d d apart
apart.
• For total charge Q on the top
Q
plate and –Q on the bottom,
taking d << A, ++ +++ + +
d apart
_ _
_ _ _ _ _
•E= /0 = Q/A0 and V= Ed,
so Qd Q A
-Q
V   where C   0
A 0 C d Charge will settle on inside
surfaces
 Spherical Capacitor
What is the electric field inside
the capacitor? (Gauss’ Law) Radius of outer
plate = b
Radius of inner
Q plate = a
E
4 0 r 2
Concentric spherical shells:
Charge +Q on inner shell,
Relate E to potential difference -Q on outer shell
between the plates:
b
1 1
b b
kQ 
V   E  dr   2 dr  
kQ 
 kQ   
r  r   a b 
a a a
 Spherical Capacitor
What is the capacitance if
b  ? Radius of outer
C = Q/V = plate = b>>a
Radius of inner
Q plate = a

Q 1 1
  
4 0  a b  Concentric spherical shells:
Charge +Q on inner shell,
-Q on outer shell
4 0 ab
 Isolated sphere: let b ,
b(1  a / b)
C  40 a
Simulation of Capacitors
http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/capacitance/
http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/varcapacitor/
http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/lightning/
http://web.mit.edu/8.02t/www/802TEAL3D/simulations/capacitor.jnlp
 Cylindrical Capacitor
• A coaxial cable is a cylindrical
capacitor of Q=  l, l is length.
• For linear charge density  C/m on
the inside wire (and so -  on the
inside of the outer cylinder) the
radial field E = /2π0r and
_
 
R2 R2
dr R2 _ _
V   E  r  dr  R r  2 0 ln R1 + + + _
R
2 0 _+ +
_+ + + _
1 1

• so _
Q 2 0
C  for length
V ln  R2 / R1 
 Capacitors in Parallel
• Let’s look first at hooking
up two identical parallel
plate capacitors in parallel:
that means the wires from a
the two top plates are
joined, similarly at the
bottom, so effectively they
become one capacitor.
• What is its capacitance?
From the picture, the
combined capacitor has
twice the area of plates, the
same distance apart.
• We see that C = C1 + C2
 Capacitors in Parallel
• A wire is a conductor, so it is an
equipotential.
• Capacitors in parallel have SAME Q1 C1
potential difference but NOT ALWAYS A B
same charge.
• VAB = VCD = V Q2 C2
C D
• Qtotal = Q1 + Q2
• CeqV = C1V + C2V
• Ceq = C1 + C2
• Equivalent parallel capacitance =
sum of capacitances Ceq
Qtotal
PARALLEL:
• V is same for all capacitors
• Total charge in Ceq = sum of charges
Capacitors in Parallel
• No difference between

and N parallel connect

capacitors of C

=NC

Capacitors in parallel:
N
C = C1 + C2 + C3 + …=  Cn
n 1
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 1 N
1
     
q Ceq C1 C2 C3 C n 1 Cn
 Example Capacitor Circuit

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

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

C3 = 4.5 F = 3.57 F
Capacitors Store Energy
• When charges flow from the battery, energy
stored in the battery is lost. Where does it
go?
• We learned last time that an arrangement of
charge is associated with potential energy.
One way to look at it is that the charge
arrangement stores the energy.
• Recall the definition of electric potential V =
U/q
• For a distribution of charge on a capacitor, a
small element dq will store potential energy
dU = V dq
• Thus, the energy stored by charging a
capacitor from charge 0 to q is
1 q q2 1
U   q dq   2 C V 2
C 0 2C
Capacitors Store Energy

u  12  0 E 2 Energy stored in electric field

 Dielectrics
• You may have wondered why we write 0
Dielectric Dielectric
(permittivity of free space), with a little zero Material Constant Strength
subscript. It turns out that other materials ke (kV/mm)
(water, paper, plastic, even air) have Air 1.00054 3
different permittivities  = k0. The k is Polystyrene 2.6 24
called the dielectric constant, and is a unit Paper 3.5 16
less number. For air, k = 1.00054 (so  for Transformer Oil 4.5
air is for our purposes the same as for Pyrex 4.7 14
“free space.”) Ruby Mica 5.4
Porcelain 6.5
• In all of our equations where you see 0,
Silicon 12
you can substitute k0 when considering
Germanium 16
some other materials (called dielectrics).
Ethanol 25
• The nice thing about this is that we can
Water (20º C) 80.4
increase the capacitance of a parallel plate
Water (50º C) 78.5
capacitor by filling the space with a
Titania Ceramic 130
dielectric: k A
C  0
 kC Strontium
Titanate
310 8

d
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  C V q
V 
C

q   k C V q
V  
kC


• Let’s consider case when the capacitor is connected to
the battery. If the capacitor is empty E=/0 =q/0 A. When
the dielectric is inserted the electric field should be the
same, E=/ =q’/k e0A= q/0 A, therefore q’/k e= q, or q’=
k e q’>q. So we get
• C’= k e C,
• and the capacitance increases. The resulting capacitance
is
k e 0 A
C  .
d
• The stored energy is also increased .
• In the case when the capacitor is not connected to the
battery. The derivation of the capacitance with dielectric
leads to the same result.
Dielectrics and Gauss’ Law
• Gauss’ Law holds without modification,
but notice that the charge enclosed by
our gaussian surface is less, because it
includes the induced charge q’ on the
dielectric. (a) without and (b) with
dielectric slab. The charge is the same
both case.
• For a given charge q on the plate, the
charge enclosed is q – q’, which means
that the electric field must be smaller.
The effect is to weaken the field.
• When attached to a battery, of course,
more charge will flow onto the plates
until the electric field is again E0.
 E0 q q  1 
E   q  q   q  1   q.
k e k e 0 A ke  ke 
 0   = 0k e Subtitling q’ into Eq. (2) we get
q
E   E  dA   k
0 e
 E   E  dA  q /  .
Gauss’ Law with Dielectric
Sample Problems
• Q1. An air-insulated parallel-plate capacitor has plate area
76 cm2 and spacing 1.2 mm. It is charged to 900 V and
then disconnected from the charging battery. A plexiglass
sheet is then inserted to fill the space between the plates.
What are (a) the capacitance, (b) the potential difference
between the plates, and (c) the stored energy both before
and after the plexiglass is inserted?
• Solution:
Before the plexiglass is inserted, (a) the capacitance is
C0 = ε0 A/d = (8.85 pF/m)(76 cm2)/(1.2 mm) = 56.1 pF.
(b) the voltage is V0 = 900 V, and (c) the stored energy is
U0 = C0V02/2= 22.7 μ J. With the plexiglass insulation
inserted, (a) the capacitance is C = κC0 = (3.4)(56.1 pF) =
191 pF.
Since the capacitor was disconnected before the process
of insertion, i.e., the plates are isolated and their charge Q
is constant, (b) the voltage is reduced by a factor of 1/κ ,
V = V0/k = 900 V/3.4 = 265 V and (c) so is the stored
energy, U = U0/κ = 22.7 μ J/3.4 = 6.68 μ J
Q2. A capacitor’s plates hold 1.3 μC when charged to 60 V.
What is its capacitance?
Solution:
C = Q/V = 1.3 μ C/60 V = 0.0217 μ F.
Q3. Find the capacitance of a parallel-plate capacitor
consisting of circular plates 20 cm in radius separated by
1.5 mm.
Solution:
C = ε0π r2/d = (8.85 pF/m)π (20 cm)2/(1.5 mm) = 741 pF.
Q4. A certain capacitor stores 40 mJ of energy when
charged to 100 V. (a) How much would it store when
charged to 25 V? (b) What is its capacitance?
Solution:
(a) Equation 26-8b, expressed as a ratio for the same
capacitor charged to two different voltages, gives U2/U1 =
(V2/V1)2. Therefore, U2 = (25/100)2(0.04 J) = 2.5 mJ.
(b) From the equation U=CV2/2 we obtain
C = 2U1/V12 = 2(0.04 J)/(100 V)2 = 8 μ F. ( C = 2U2/V22 ,
of course.)
Q5. Four capacitors, each with a capacitance C = 4.00μF,
are connected as shown. The potential difference Vab =
25.0V. (a) What is the equivalent capacitance between a
and d ? (b) What is the potential difference between a and
d?
(c)What is the charge on C4? (d) What is the charge on C1?
(e) What is the total electric energy stored in the four-
capacitor system?

Solution:
(a) Cad = (C1C2/(C1+ C2) + C3 = 6.0μF (the resultant of C1 and C2
connected in series is connected in parallel with C3)
(b) Vad/Vdb = Cdb/Cad = 4/6 or Vdb = 1.5Vad [1]
Also note that Vad + Vdb = 25.0V [2]
So Vad + 1.5Vad = 25.0V  2.5 Vad =25V  Vad =10V
(c) Q4 = C4 Vdb = 4.0μF 15.0V = 60.0μC (Vdb = 15.0V)
(d) Q1 = C1 (Vad/2) = 4.0μF 5.0V = 20.0μC ( Note: Vad/2
is the potential across C1)
(e) U = 0.52.4μF(25.0)2 =7.5 10-4J
Q6. What is the equivalent capacitance of the circuit shown
below? A potential of 24 V is applied across points A and
B. What is the charge on each capacitor? What is the
voltage across each capacitor? What is the energy stored
in each capacitor?
(Solve yourself)
Problem: Dielectric Partially Filling a Gap in a Capacitor:
Problem: Dielectric Partially Filling a Gap in a Capacitor, cont.:
Summary
• Capacitance says how much charge is on an arrangement q  C V
of conductors for a given potential.
• Capacitance depends only on geometry
• Parallel Plate Capacitor
 0 A C  2 L ab
C  40 R
• Cylindrical Capacitor C 0 C  40
• Spherical Capacitor d ln( b / a) ba
• Isolated Sphere
• Units, F (farad) = C2/Nm or C/V (note 0 = 8.85 pF/m)
• Capacitors in parallel in series
n
n 1 1
Ceq   C j 
j 1
Ceq j 1 C j
• Energy and energy density stored by capacitor
U  12 C V 2 u  12  0 E 2

• Dielectric constant increases capacitance due to induced,

opposing field. C  kC k is a unitless number.
October 10, 2007