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Designing capacitors (1)
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Exercise Part I

Questions imageUsing the data from your experiments, which of the four graphs to the right best represents:
(1) the effect of plate area on the charge stored?
Graph A Graph B Graph C Graph D
(2) the effect of plate separation on the charge stored?
Graph A Graph B Graph C Graph D
Graph A
Graph A		 Graph B
Graph B
Graph C
Graph C		 Graph D
Graph D

Combining the results, we can use our previous result that C µ Q to arrive at:

C = constant × (A / d)

The constant here is called the permittivity of the dielectric material, e; the charge stored also depends on the material used as a dielectric.

Exercise Part II

Questions imageTo produce a capacitor with as large a capacitance as possible, we should design it so that:

Diagram
(1) the plate area is?
as large as possible as small as possible
(2) the plates are placed?
close together far apart
(3) the dielectric has?

a large permittivity

a small permittivity
 

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