Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Solve the following question.
A parallel plate capacitor is charged by a battery to a potential difference V. It is disconnected from the battery and then connected to another uncharged capacitor of the same capacitance. Calculate the ratio of the energy stored in the combination to the initial energy on the single capacitor.
Advertisements
Solution

`E_f = 1/2 ((CV)/2)^2/C + 1/2 ((CV)/2)^2/C`
= `(C^2V^2)/(4C)`
`E_f = 1/4 CV^2`
`E_f/E_i = (1/4 CV^2)/(1/2 CV^2) = 1/2`
RELATED QUESTIONS
The plates of a parallel plate capacitor have an area of 90 cm2 each and are separated by 2.5 mm. The capacitor is charged by connecting it to a 400 V supply.
(a) How much electrostatic energy is stored by the capacitor?
(b) View this energy as stored in the electrostatic field between the plates, and obtain the energy per unit volume u. Hence arrive at a relation between u and the magnitude of electric field E between the plates.
A parallel plate capacitor is to be designed with a voltage rating 1 kV, using a material of dielectric constant 3 and dielectric strength about 107 Vm−1. (Dielectric strength is the maximum electric field a material can tolerate without breakdown, i.e., without starting to conduct electricity through partial ionisation.) For safety, we should like the field never to exceed, say 10% of the dielectric strength. What minimum area of the plates is required to have a capacitance of 50 pF?
A ray of light falls on a transparent sphere with centre C as shown in the figure. The ray emerges from the sphere parallel to the line AB. Find the angle of refraction at A if the refractive index of the material of the sphere is \[\sqrt{3}\].

A parallel-plate capacitor is charged to a potential difference V by a dc source. The capacitor is then disconnected from the source. If the distance between the plates is doubled, state with reason how the following change:
(i) electric field between the plates
(ii) capacitance, and
(iii) energy stored in the capacitor
A parallel-plate capacitor with plate area 20 cm2 and plate separation 1.0 mm is connected to a battery. The resistance of the circuit is 10 kΩ. Find the time constant of the circuit.
A parallel-plate capacitor of plate area 40 cm2 and separation between the plates 0.10 mm, is connected to a battery of emf 2.0 V through a 16 Ω resistor. Find the electric field in the capacitor 10 ns after the connections are made.
For a large sheet of charge, what is the electric field due to each plate in terms of surface charge density \[\sigma\]?
Substituting \[V=\frac{Qd}{\varepsilon_0 A}\] into \[C=\frac{Q}{V}\] gives which capacitance?
Which description gives the working principle of a parallel plate capacitor?
For the same voltage, what change allows more charge to be stored and more energy to be stored in the capacitor?
