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1.

Introduction

A capacitor (formerly known as condenser) is a device that can store electronic charge
and energy.

All capacitors consists of a combination of two conductors separated by an insulator.

The insulator is called dielectric which could be oil, air or paper and many more such
materials are there wich can act as a dielectric medium between conducting plates of a
capacitor.

Figure 1 below shows the symbol used to represent a capacitor.

Now plates of the capacitor are connected to the terminals of a battery, shown below in
figure 2, in order to charge it's conducting plates.

As soon as capacitor is connected to the battery , charge is transferred from one


conductor to another.

Plate connected to positive terminal of the battery becomes positively charged with
charge +Q in it and plate connected to negative terminal of the battery becomes
negatively charged with cahrge -Q on it i.e. both plates have equal amount of opposite
charge .

Once the capacitor is fully charged potential difference between the conductors due to
their equal and opposite charges becomes equal to the potential difference between the
battery terminals.

For a given capacitor QV and the ratio Q/V is constant for a capacitor.
Thus,
Q=CV
(1)
where the proportionality constant C is called the capacitance of the capacitor.

Capacitance of any capacitor depends on shape , size and geometrical arrangement of the
conductors.

When Q is in coulumbs (C) and V is in volts(V) then the S.I. unit of capacitance is in
farads(F) where
1F=1 coulumb/volt

One farad is the capacitance of very large capacitor and it's submultiples such as
microfarad(1F=10-6) or picofarad(1pF=10-12) are generally used for practical
applications.

2. Calculation of capacitance

For calculating capacitance of a capacitor first we need to find the potential difference
between it's two conducting plates having charge +Q and -Q.

For simple arrangements of conductors like two equivalent parallel plates kept at distance
d apart or two concentric conducting spheres etc., potential difference can be found first
by calculating electric field from gauss's law or by Coulumb's law.

After calculating electric field , potential difference can be found by integrating ellectric
field using the relation
Va-Vb=E.dr
where the limits of integration goes from a to b.

Once we know the potential difference between two conductors of the capacitor , it's
capacitance can be calculated from the relation
C=Q/V
(2)

Calculation of capacitance of some simple arrangements would be illustrated in following


few articles.

3. Parallel plate capacitor

A parallel plate capacitor consists of two large plane parallel conducting plates separated
by a small distance shown below in the figure 3.

Suppose two plates of the capacitor has equal and opposite charge Q on them. If A is the
area of each plate then surface charge density on each plate is
=Q/A

We have already calculated field between two oppositely charged plates using gauss's law
which is
E=/0=Q/0A
and in this result effects near the edges of the plates have been neglected.

Since electric field between the plates is uniform the potential difference between the
plates is
V=Ed=Qd/0A
where , d is the separation between the plates.

Thus, capacitance of parallel plate capacitor in vacuum is


C=Q/V=0A/d
(3)

From equation 3 we see that quantities on which capacitance of parallel plate capacitor
depends i.e.,0 , A and d are all constants for a capacitor.

Thus we see that in this case capacitance is independent of charge on the capacitor but
depends on area of it's plates and separation distance between the plates.

4.Cylinderical capacitor

A cylinderical capacitor is made up of a conducting cylinder or wire of radius a


surrounded by another concentric cylinderical shel of radius b (b>a).

Let L be the length of both the cylinders and charge on inner cylender is +Q and charge
on outer cylinder is -Q.

For calculate electric field between the conductors using Gauss's law consider a gaussian
consider a gaussian surface of radius r and length L1 as shown in figure 4.

According to Gauss's law flux through this surface is q/0 where q is net charge inside this
surface.

We know that electric flux is given by


=E.A
=EAcos
=EA
since electric field is constant in magnitude on the gaussian surface and is perpandicular
to this surface. Thus,
=E(2rL)
since
=q/0
=>
E(2rL)=(L)/0
where = Q/L = charge per unit length

=>

(4)
If potential at inner cylinder is Va and Vb is potential of outer cylinder then potential
difference between both the cylinders is
V=Va and
Vb=Edr
where limits of integration goes from a to b.

Potential of inner conductor is greater then that of outer conductor because inner
cylinder carries positive charge. Thus potential difference is

Thus capacitance of cylinderical capacitor is


C=Q/V
or, C=\frac{2\pi \epsilon _{0}L{(b/a))}

(5)

From equation 5 it can easily be concluded that capacitance of a cylinderical capacitor


depends on length of cylinders.

More is the length of cylinders , more charge could be stored on the capacitor for a given
potential difference.

5. Spherical capacitor

A spherical capacitor consists of a solid or hollow spherical conductor of radius a ,


surrounded by another hollow concentric spherical of radius b shown below in figure 5

Let +Q be the charge given to the inner sphere and -Q be the charge given to the outer
sphere.

The field at any point between conductors is same as that of point charge Q at the origin
and charge on outer shell does not contribute to the field inside it.

Thus electric field between conductors is

Potential difference between two conductors is


V=Va-Vb
=-E.dr
where limits of integration goes from a to b.
On integrating we get potential difference between to conductors as

Now , capacitance of spherical conductor is


C=Q/V
or,

(6)
again if radius of outer conductor aproaches to infinity then from equation 6 we have
C=40a
(7)
Equation 7 gives the capacitance of single isolated sphere of radius a.
Thus capacitance of isolated spherical conductor is proportional to its radius.

6. Capacitors in series and parallel combinations


For prectical applications , two or more capacitors are often used in combination and
their total capacitance C must be known.To find total capacitance of the arrangement of
capacitor we would use equation
Q=CV
(i) Parallel combination of capacitors

Figure below shows two capacitors connected in parallel between two points A and B

Right hand side plate of capacitors would be at same common potential VA. Similarly left
hand side plates of capacitors would also be at same common potential VB.

Thus in this case potential difference VAB=VA-VB would be same for both the capacitors,
and charges Q1 and Q2 on both the capacitors are not necessarily equal. So,
Q1=C1V and Q2=C2V

Thus charge stored is divided amongst both the capacitors in direct proportion to their
capacitance.

Total charge on both the capacitors is,


Q=Q1+Q2
=V(C1+C2)
and
Q/V=C1+C2
(8)
So system is equivalent to a single capacitor of capacitance
C=Q/V
where,

When capacitors are connected in parallel their resultant capacitance C is the sum of their
individual capacitances.

The value of equivalent capacitance of system is greater then the greatest individual one.

If there are number of capacitors connected in parallel then their equivalent capacitance
would be
C=C1+C2+ C3...........
(10)
(ii) Series combination of capacitors

Figure 7 below shows two capacitors connected in series combination between points A
and B.

Both the points A and B are maintained at constant potential difference VAB.

In series combination of capacitors right hand plate of first capacitor is connected to left
hand plate of next capacitor and combination may be extended foe any number of
capacitors.

In series combination of capacitors all the capacitors would have same charge.

Now potential difference across individual capacitors are given by


VAR=Q/C1
and,
VRB=Q/C2

Sum of VAR and VRB would be equal to applied potential difference V so,
V=VAB=VAR+VRB
=Q(1/C1 + 1/C2)
or,

where

i.e., resultant capacitance of series combination C=Q/V, is the ratio of charge to total
potential difference across the two capacitors connected in series.

So, from equation 12 we say that to find resultant capacitance of capacitors connected in
series, we need to add reciprocals of their individual capacitances and C is always less
then the smallest individual capacitance.

Result in equation 12 can be summarized for any number of capacitors i.e.,

7. Energy stored in a capacitor

Consider a capacitor of capacitance C, completely uncharged in the begning.

Charhing process of capacitor requires expanditure of energy because while charging a


capacitor charge is transferred from plate at lower potential to plate at higher potential.

Now if we start charging capacitor by transporting a charge dQ from negative plate ti the
positive plate then work is done against the potential difference across the plate.

If q is the amount of charge on the capacitor at any stage of charging process and is the
potential difference across the plates of capacitor then magnitude of potential difference
is =q/C.

Now work dW required to transfer dq is


dW=dq=qdq/C

To charge the capacitor starting from the uncharged state to some final charge Q work
required is
Integrating from 0 to Q
W=(1/C)qdq
=(Q2)/2C
(14a)
=(CV2)/2
=QV/2
Which is the energy stored in the capacitor and can also be written as
U=(CV2)/2 ---(15)

From equation 14c,we see that the total work done is equal to the average potential V/2
during the charging process ,multiplied by the total charge transferred

If C is measured in Farads ,Q in coulumbs and V in volts the energy stored would in


Joules

A parallel plate capacitor of area A and seperation d has capacitance


C=0A/d

electric field in the space between the plates is


E=V/d or V=Ed
Putting above values of V and C in equation 14b we find
W=U=(1/2)(0A/d)(Ed)2
=(1/2)0E2(Ad)
=(1/2)0E2.V ---(16)

If u denotes the energy per unit volume or energy density then


u=(1/2)0E2 x volume

The result for above equation is generally valid even for electrostatic field that is not
constant in space.

8. Effect of Dielectric

Dielectric are non conducting materials for ex- Glass,mica,wood etc.

What happened when space between the two plates of the capacitor is filled by a
dielectric was first discovered by faraday.

Faraday discovered that if the space between conductors of the capacitor is occupied by
the dielectric,the capacitance of capacitor is increased.

If the dielectric completely fills the space between the conductors of the capacitor ,the
capacitance is increased by an factor K which is characterstics of the dielectric and This
factor is known as the dielectric constan.

Dielectric constant of vaccum is unity.

Consider a capacitor of capacitance C0 is being charged by the connecting it to a battery.

If Q0 is the amount of charged on the capacitor at the end of the charging and V0 is
potental diffrence across the plates of the capacitor then
C0=Q0 /V0 ----(17)
Thus charge being placed on the capacitor is
Q0=C0V0

If the battery is diconnected and space between the capacitor is filled by a dielectric the
P.D decrease to a new value
V=V0/K.

Since the original charge is still on the capacitor,the new capacitance will be
C=Q0/V=KQ0/V0=KC0----(19)

From equation 19 it follows that C is greater then C0.

Again if the dielectric is inserted while the battery is still connected then battery would
have to supply some amount of charge to maintain the P.D between the plates and then
total charge on the plates would be Q=KQ0.

In either of the cases ,capacitance of the capacitor is increase by the amount K.

For a parallel plate capacitor with dielectric of dielectric constant K between its plates its
capacitance becomes
C=A/D ----(20)
where =K0

When a sufficiently strong electric field is applied to any dielectric material it becomes a
conductor and this phenomenon is known as dielectric breakdown.

The maximun electric field a material can withstand without the occurence of breakdown
is called dielectric strength of that material.

Thus field across the capacitor should never exceed breakdown limits in order to store
charge on capacitor without leaking.

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