PHY 184

Spring 2007
Lecture 14

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 1

 Announcements
 Midterm 1 will take place in class a week from tomorrow,
Thursday, February 8.
 One 8.5 x 11 inch equation sheet (front and back) is allowed
 The exam will cover
Chapters 16 - 19
Homework Sets 1 - 4
 Practice exam (the actual Midterm 1 from last fall) is
available:
http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/phy184

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 2

 Review
 The electric potential energy stored in a capacitor is
given by
1
U CV 2
2

 The field energy density stored in a parallel plate

capacitor is given by
2
1 V
u  0  
2  d

 The field energy density in general is

1
u  0E 2
2

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 3

 Review (2)
 Placing a dielectric between the plates of a capacitor
increases the capacitance by  (dielectric constant)
C   Cair
 The dielectric has the effect of lowering the electric field
between the plates (for given charge q)
Eair
E

 We also define the electric permitivity of the dielectric
material as

   0

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 4

 Dielectric Strength
 The “dielectric strength” of a material measures
the ability of that material to withstand voltage
differences.
 If the voltage across a dielectric exceeds the
breakdown potential, the dielectric will break down
and begin to conduct charge between the plates.
 Real-life dielectrics enable a capacitor provide a
given capacitance and hold the required voltage
without breaking down.
 Capacitors are usually specified in terms of their
capacitance and rated voltage.

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 5

 Dielectric Constant   
0
 The dielectric constant of vacuum is defined to be 1.
 The dielectric constant of air is close to 1 and we will use the
dielectric constant of air as 1 in our problems.
 The dielectric constants of common materials are

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 6

 Capacitor with Dielectric
 Question 1:
 Consider a parallel plate capacitor with
capacitance C = 2.00 F connected to a
battery with voltage V = 12.0 V as shown.
What is the charge stored in the
capacitor?

 
q  CV  2.00 106 F 12.0 V  2.40 105 C

 Question 2:
 Now insert a dielectric with dielectric constant  = 2.5
between the plates of the capacitor. What is the charge
on the capacitor?
C   Cair The capacitance of the capacitor is increased

q  CV  2.50  2.0  10 6 F  12.0 V  6.0  10 5 C

The additional charge is provided by the battery.

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 7

 Capacitor with Dielectric (2)
 Question 3:
 We isolate the charged capacitor with a dielectric by
disconnecting it from the battery. We remove the
dielectric, keeping the capacitor isolated.
 What happens to the charge and voltage on the capacitor?

 The charge on the isolated capacitor cannot change because there is

nowhere for the charge to flow. Q remains constant.
 The voltage on the capacitor will be
q 6.00 10 5 C
V  6
 30.0 V V increases
C 2.00 10 F
 The voltage went up because removing the dielectric increased the electric
field and the resulting potential difference between the plates.

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 8

 Capacitor with Dielectric (3)
 Question 4:
 Does removing the dielectric from the isolated
capacitor change the energy stored in the capacitor?

 The energy stored in the capacitor before the dielectric was

removed was
1 1 1
U
2 2 2
 
CV 2   CairV 2  2.50  2.00 10 6 F 12 V  3.60 10 4 J
2

 After the dielectric is removed, the energy is

1 1
2
U
2
 
CairV 2  2.00 10 6 F 30 V  9.00 10 4 J
2

 The energy increases --- we must add energy to pull out the
dielectric. [Or, the polarized dielectric is sucked into the E.]

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 9

 Example
 A coaxial cable used in a transmission line has an inner radius of a=0.10
mm and an outer radius of b=0.60 mm. Calculate the capacitance per
meter for this type of cable.

Idea: The capacitance of a cylindrical capacitor is given by

The capacitance per unit length is thus:

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 10

 Clicker Question
 A coaxial cable used in a transmission line has an inner radius of a=0.10
mm and an outer radius of b=0.60 mm. We calculate the capacitance per
meter to be 81 pF/m. Now assume that the space between the
conductors is filled with material of =3. How does the capacitance
change?

A) 243 pF/m
B) 27 pF/m
C) doesn’t change
D) 8.1 pF/m
C   Cair
 3  81 pF/m  243 pF/m

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 11

 Example
 An air-filled parallel plate capacitor has a capacitance of 1.3 pF. The
separation of the plates is doubled, and wax is inserted between them.
The new capacitance is 2.6pF. Find the dielectric constant of the wax.

 Key Ideas: The original capacitance is given by

Then the new capacitance is

Thus

rearrange the equation:

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 12

 Example
 Given a 7.4 pF air-filled capacitor. You are asked to convert it to
a capacitor that can store up to 7.4 J with a maximum voltage of
652 V. What dielectric constant should the material have that
you insert to achieve these requirements?

 Key Idea: The capacitance with the dielectric in place is given by

C=Cair

and the energy stored is given by

So,

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 13

 Clicker Question - part 1
 A parallel-plate air-filled capacitor has a capacitance of 50
pF.
 (a) If each of the plates has an area of A=0.35 m2, what is
the separation?

A) 12.5 10-1 m
0=8.85 10-12 C2/Nm2
B) 6.2 10-2 m
C) 1.3 m

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 14

 Clicker Question - part 1
 A parallel-plate air-filled capacitor has a capacitance of 50
pF.
 (a) If each of the plates has an area of A=0.35 m2, what is
the separation?

B) 6.2 10-2 m

Use to solve for d:

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 15

 Clicker Question - part 2
 An air-filled parallel plate capacitor has a capacitance of
50pF.
 (b) If the region between the plates is now filled with
material having a dielectric constant of =2, what is the
capacitance?

A) the same
B) 25 pF
C) 100 pF

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 16

 Clicker Question - part 2
 A air-filled parallel plate capacitor has a capacitance of 50
pF.
 (b) If the region between the plates is now filled with
material having a dielectric constant of =2, what is the
capacitance?

C) 100 pF

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 17

Microscopic Perspective on Dielectrics
 Let’s consider what happens at the atomic and molecular level when a
dielectric is placed in an electric field.
 There are two types of dielectric materials
• Polar dielectric
• Non-polar dielectric
 Polar dielectric material is composed of molecules that have a
permanent electric dipole moment due to their molecular structure
• e.g., water molecules
 Normally the directions of the electric dipoles are randomly distributed
as shown below

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 18

 Microscopic Perspective on Dielectrics (2)
 When an electric field is applied to these polar molecules, they tend to
align with the electric field

 Non-polar dielectric material is composed of atoms or molecules that

have no electric dipole moment

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 19

 Microscopic Perspective on Dielectrics (3)
 These atoms or molecules can be induced to have a dipole moment
under the influence of an external electric field.
 This induction is caused by the opposite direction of the electric
force on the negative and positive charges of the atom or
molecule, which displaces the center of the relative charge
distributions and produces an induced electric dipole moment

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 20

 Microscopic Perspective on Dielectrics (4)
 In both the case of the polar and non-polar dielectric
materials, the resulting aligned electric dipole moments
tend to partially cancel the original electric field

 The electric field inside the capacitor then is the original

field minus the induced field
  
Er  E  Ed

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 21

 Example: Camera Flash

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 22

 Example: Camera Flash

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 23

 Example: Camera Flash

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 24

 Partially Filled Capacitor
 A cylindrical capacitor is lying on a
table as shown. The outer cylinder
has radius b=4.5 cm, and the inner
cylinder has a radius a=4.0 cm.
The total length of the capacitor is
L=9.0 cm. A dielectric material of
constant κ=3.5 is inserted a length
L-d=3 cm between the two
conducting cylinders. The partially
filled capacitor is then connected to
a voltage 100.0 V. In what follows,
we'll refer to the region where there
is no dielectric as region I and the
region where there is a dielectric
present as region II.
 What is the ratio of the charge in
region I to that in region II?

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 25

 Partially Filled Capacitor - 2
 The voltage between the two cylinders is V, regardless of whether we
are in region I or II (it is like two capacitors in parallel); since q = CV,

q 2 0 L qI C d
C   I   0.57
V ln r2 / r1  qII C II  (L  d)
20
where the common factor V is cancelled
ln b /a
 The partially filled capacitor is disconnected from the voltage source,
so that it remains charged. The dielectric is then moved further into
the capacitor, so that region II now has length L-d' = 3.5 cm. Now what

is the voltage difference between the cylinders?
 Here the total charge is what is was before, so the new voltage is

q C d   (L  d)
V' V V
C' C' d '  (L  d ')
6 cm+3.5(3.0 cm)
 100V  93 V
5.5 cm + 3.5(3.5 cm)
1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 26
 Partially Filled Capacitor - 3
 Is a force required to hold the dielectric in place, and if
so, what is its direction?
• The energy of a capacitor is qV/2; since V was reduced
while q remained constant, the energy of the capacitor is
lowered by inserting the dielectric into it. This means
that the work was done by the capacitor+dielectric, ie, if
we attached the left-hand side of the dielectric (the
side outside the capacitor) to a spring the dielectric
would pull on the spring.
• A force is required to keep the dielectric from moving
further into the capacitor.

1/31/07 184 Lecture 14 27