Chapter 24

Capacitance and
Dielectrics
PowerPoint Lectures for
University Physics, Thirteenth Edition
Hugh D. Young and Roger A. Freedman
Lectures by Wayne Anderson
Copyright 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Goals for Chapter 24

To understand capacitors and calculate
capacitance
To analyze networks of capacitors
To calculate the energy stored in a capacitor
To examine dielectrics and how they affect
capacitance

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Introduction

How does a cameras

flash unit store
energy?
Capacitors are
devices that store
electric potential
energy.
The energy of a
capacitor is actually
stored in the electric
field.
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Capacitors and capacitance

Any two conductors separated by an insulator form a
capacitor, as illustrated in Figure 24.1 below.
The definition of capacitance is C = Q/Vab.

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Parallel-plate capacitor
A parallel-plate capacitor consists of two parallel conducting
plates separated by a distance that is small compared to their
dimensions. (See Figure 24.2 below.)

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Parallel-plate capacitor

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Parallel-plate capacitor

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A spherical capacitor

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A cylindrical capacitor

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Capacitors in series
Capacitors are in series if they are connected one after the
other, as illustrated in Figure 24.8 below.
In series connection Q is the same but the potential is devided

The equivalent capacitance of a series combination is given

by 1/Ceq = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3 +

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Capacitors in series
Capacitors are in parallel connection, the potential difference
is the same across each capacitor but the total charges divides.

The equivalent capacitance of a

parallel combination is thus given by
Ceq = C1 + C2 + C3 +

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Calculations of capacitance

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Calculations of capacitance

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Energy stored in a capacitor

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Energy stored in a capacitor

For a palled plate capacitor the sored energy per unit volume
takes the form;

Although this form has obtained here for a parallel plate

capacitor, it works for any capacitor.

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Some examples of capacitor energy

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Dielectrics
A dielectric is a nonconducting
material. Most capacitors have
dielectric between their plates. (See
Figure 24.13 at upper right.)
The dielectric constant of the
material is K = C/C0 > 1.
Dielectric increases the capacitance
and the energy density by a factor K.
Figure 24.15 (lower right) shows
how the dielectric affects the electric
field between the plates.
Table 24.1 on the next slide shows
some values of the dielectric
constant.
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Table 24.1Some dielectric constants

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Examples with and without a dielectric

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Dielectric breakdown
If the electric field is strong enough, dielectric breakdown occurs
and the dielectric becomes a conductor.
The dielectric strength is the maximum electric field the material
can withstand before breakdown occurs.
Table 24.2 shows the dielectric strength of some insulators.

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Induced Charge and Polarization

When a dielectric material is inserted between
the plates while the charge is kept constant,
the potential difference between the plates
decreases by a factor
Therefore the electric field between the plates
must decrease by the same factor.

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The electric field induces negative charges

closer to the positive plate while inducing
positive charge near the negative plates, we
assume that the induced charge density is .
Accordingly we have;
Or;
The product is
of the dielectric.

called the permittivity

So we can write;
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