PHYSICS UNIT

SMK SEAFIELD
.
TUTORIAL 2
(CAPACITOR & DIELECTRICS)

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to :

1. Define capacitance.
Q
2. Use formulae C .
V
3. Determine capacitance of parallel plate capacitor.
4. Deduce and use the effective capacitance of capacitors in series and parallel.
5. Derive and use equation of energy stored in a capacitor.
6. Define and use time constant, t = RC.
7. Sketch and explain the characteristics of Q-t and I-t graph for charging and discharging of
a capacitor.
8. Use formula Q = Qo e -t / RC for discharging and Q = Qo (1 - e -t / RC ) for charging.
9. Define dielectric constant.
10. Describe the effect of dielectric on a parallel plate capacitor.
11. Use formulae C = rCo.

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 PHYSICS UNIT
SMK SEAFIELD
----------------------------------------------------------
TUTORIAL 2
(CAPACITORS & DIELECTRICS)

Answer all the questions below:

1. A pair of parallel plates, forming a capacitor, are charged. The plates are pulled apart to
double the original separation, the charges on the plats remaining the same. What is the
ratio of the final energy stored to the original energy stored?
A. 4
B. 2
C. 1
D.

2. A capacitor is charged through a resistor of resistance 2 M. The FIGURE 20.1 shows

how the current in the charging circuit varies with time. What is the capacitance of the
capacitor?

Io
e2
O
5 10 15 20 t(s)

FIGURE 20.1
A. 2.5 F
B. 5.0 F
C. 7.5 F
D. 10.0 F

3. An air-filled parallel plate capacitor is charged. After that it is immersed in a liquid

dielectric. As a result

A. both the capacitance and potential difference across the plates decrease
B. both the capacitance and potential difference across the plates increase
C. the capacitance increase and the potential difference across the plates decrease
D. the capacitance decrease and the potential difference across the plates increase

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4. For the system of capacitors shown in FIGURE 20.2 below, find
a) the charge on each capacitor ( 180C, 180 C, 120 C, 120 C )
b) the potential across each capacitor ( 60 V, 30 V, 60 V, 30 V )

3.00 F 6.00 F

2.00 F 4.00 F

90V

FIGURE 20.2

5. A parallel plate capacitor has plates of area 1.00 m2 and spacing of 0.500 mm. The
insulator has dielectric constant 4.9 and dielectric strength 18 kV/mm. What is the
capacitance and what is the maximum charge that can be stored on this capacitor?
( 8.67 x 10-8 F, 7.80 x 10-4 C )

6. Two capacitors with capacitances of 1.5 F and 0.25 F respectively are connected in
parallel. The system is connected to a 50 V battery. What electrical potential energy is
stored in the 1.5 F capacitor? ( 1.9 x 10-3 J )

7.

C1=1F C3=4F

C2 =3F C5=3F
X Y

C4=8F C6=5F
FIGURE 20.3

Refer to circuit shown in Figure 20.3 above, determine the total capacitance across XY.

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 ( 6F )

8. Sketch and explain the characteristics of the graph Q-t for charging and discharging of a
capacitor.

9. A capacitor of 2.0 F is charged using a 1.5 V battery. The charged capacitor is then
discharged through a 60 k resistor.

(i) What is the time constant of the discharge circuit? ( 0.12 s )

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(ii) Find the time taken for the charge on the capacitor to decrease to . ( 0.12
e
s)

10. A parallel plate capacitor of capacitance Co has plates of area A with separation d
between them. When it is connected to a battery of voltage Vo, it has charge of
magnitude Qo on its plates. It is then disconnected from the battery and the space
between the plates is filled with a material of dielectric constant 3. After the dielectric is
added, the magnitudes of the charge on the plates and the potential difference between
them are ( Qo, 1/3 Vo )

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