The charge per unit potential difference across a capacitor
Units: (F)
Two metal plates separated by a dielectric(Insulator)
The plates store electric charge, which creates a build up in electric potential energy
- The power supply's positive terminal removes negative electrons from one plate causing it to become +ve charged and transfers it to the opposite plate making it -ve charged. The more e-'s that build up, the less e-'s are pushed on the plate due to electrostatic repulsion. The pd becomes the same as the power supply
e-'s leave the negative plate and are transferred to the +ve plate, this occurs until each plate has a neutral charge and the pd between them is zero
- A protective resistor.
-Prevents too quick discharging which can damage the circuit
It produces a short burst of a large current
It produces a low current over a long period of time
A flash camera
In a temporary power supply e.g. power to the internal memory of a device while its batteries are charged
Greater area of overlap between plates results in a greater amount of e-s that can be stored on the plates, so a greater capacitance
Greater distance between plates = weaker the electrostatic field is between the plates resulting in a lower capacitance
The higher the permittivity of the dielectric, the weaker the electric field between the plates are due to the dielectric's field opposing the field of the capacitor, so a higher capacitance
C = Q/V C = εA/d
C- Capacitance
Q - Charge
V = Voltage
ε = Material permittivity
d = separation distance
C(total) = C1 + C2 + C3
EACH CAPACITOR HAS THE SAME VOLTAGE
1/C(total) = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3
EACH CAPACITOR HAS THE SAME CHARGE
W = 1/2QV
W = 1/2CV²
W = 1/2(Q²/C)
Greater number of e-s can be stored on each plate, this increases the no of e-s that need to be discharged from the capacitor which increases the time taken for a capactor to discharge completely
The more difficult it is for charge to flow, increasing time taken for e-s to leave the capacitor resulting in the time taken for the capacitor to discharge
The charge, pd and current drop to 37% of its initial value
Converting AC to DC
A sinusoidal wave
Bumps
Up like a sine wave when charging and down like a straight line graph when discharging
ε = ε0 × εr
Due to kirchoffs first law (Conservation of charge)