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Technical Trimmings: Measuring the force on a dielectric with an electronic balance

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2002 Phys. Educ. 37 70

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F RONTLINE
Where teachers share ideas and teaching solutions with the wider physics teaching community: contact ped@iop.org

the computer-interface or HP 4192 A to the protruding 4

foil at each end with proper contact leads. A capacitor
made with pieces of aluminium foil 43 cm × 9.2 cm, 3
using a pile of paper of thickness 0.92 cm as a dielec-

Voltage / V
tric medium, will have a capacitance of 1 nF (by the 2
computer-interfaced method) and 0.8 nF by the HP
4192 A method. The capacitance depends on the geo- 1
metry of the conductors. For parallel plates of equal
surface areas (A), which are large compared with the 0
distance (d) between them, the capacitance is given by 0.770 0.772 0.774 0.776 0.778
Time / s
C = ε0 εr A/d and εr = Cd/ε0 A . (2)
Figure 1. Variation of voltage (V) with time across
Here ε0 is a constant called the permittivity or dielec- the home-built capacitor at 40 Hz.
tric constant of free space (vacuum), which has a value
8.854 × 10−12 F m−1 , and εr is the relative permitti-
vity of the dielectric (see figure 2). Students can make 14
several different capacitors by changing the physical
parameters A and d.
Relative dielectric constant, εr

12 computer-interfaced
-HP4192A
Acknowledgments 10
Author MSJ is thankful to the Kilambi Ramavataram
Committee of the American Physical Society and 8
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board for providing fel-
lowships to work in the USA. He also thanks Dr 6
R Kirby and Vicki Planto, and Dr S Ducharme,
University of Nebraska, Lincoln for providing dielec- 4
tric measurement facilities. He also thanks Dr Meera
Chandrasekhar, University of Missouri, Columbia for 2
help while preparing the manuscript.
0
Mahantappa S Jogad 1 and Ajaya Yagnamurthy 2 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
1
Sharanabasaveshwar College of Science Gulbarga, Frequency / Hz
Karnataka, India and University of Nebraska,
Lincoln, USA Figure 2. Variation of the relative permittivity (εr )
2
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA with frequency.

Measuring the force on a dielectric

with an electronic balance
The electric forces acting on a dielectric slab partially
inserted in the gap of a parallel-plate capacitor is a
common phenomenon discussed in many introductory
physics textbooks [1]. The force causing the dielectric
to move perpendicularly to the electric field originates
in the interaction of the fringe field with the polarized
charges of the dielectric in the region outside the plates
[2]. Although the standard textbook calculations [3]
completely disregard the fringe field, the formal appli-
cability of the principle of virtual work in computing
the force remains valid if the following conditions are
satisfied. The plate spacing d is to be small compared
with the plate dimensions l, the outer edge of the di-
electric must be located beyond the fringe field region
and the inner edge must be located in the region of the
uniform field. The textbook result for the force is then
given by [2]
b
F = ε0 (εr − 1) V 2 (1)
2d

70 P H YSI C S E D U C AT I O N January 2002

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aluminium strip Experimental setup

A schematic diagram of the experimental setup is
dielectric shown in figure 1. The capacitor consists of two verti-
slab cal-parallel square aluminium plates with 17 cm sides,
electronic balance 3 mm thick. The capacitor plates are attached to glass
capacitor standoffs so that one plate is fixed rigidly and the other
held stationary on a movable table with millimetre
jack graduation permitting the gap between the plates to be
kept constant. An electronic balance with sensitivity
0.01 g was used. Its mass reading was converted into
force via F = mg , so that the force could be measured
Figure 1. Experimental setup for measuring the with a sensitivity of 10−4 N. A 50 cm aluminium strip
electric force acting on a dielectric slab using an with a 1.0 × 1.0 cm square section was placed in cen-
electronic balance. tre of the balance pan, and extended beyond it sym-
metrically. The dielectric slab was fixed to the end
of the strip used for measurement of the vertical force
2.0
without displacing it, and its free edge was arranged
between the capacitor plates. With the movable
1.6 capacitor plate in the required position, the balance
was set to zero. Before the experiment the response of
1.2 the strip to small loads was checked by placing 10 mg
F / mN

weights on its end. On applying the voltage across

0.8
0.4
0 textbook considerations, the gap d was slightly wider
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
∆V / kV
Figure 2. Plot of the balance reading versus applied
potential. The curve is fitted to a function of the type
F ∝ V n (n = 2.15).
where εr is the relative permittivity, ε0 = 8.85×
10−12 F m−1 is the permittivity of free space, V is
the potential difference across the capacitor and b is
the width of the dielectric.
Recently, an experimental demonstration of this force
was carried out by means of a pendulum balance [4].
A standard glass microscope slide (εr = 5) was sus-
pended from a 134 cm long string between the parallel
plates of a capacitor with a 2 mm gap. The slide moved
about 2 cm into the gap when a voltage of 2.5 kV was
applied to the plates. The pull-off force, estimated from
the strip deflection, was less than 10−3 N.
To measure such a weak force, an ordinary digital
balance with a sensitivity 0.01 g or better can be used
in a simple and straightforward way [5]. An electronic
balance is less complicated than the pendulum balance
and ensures better precision. Moreover, it can be op-
erated under prescribed conditions with the fringe field
effect excluded.
the capacitor, a balance reading notes the pull-off force
acting on the dielectric equal to the electric force. The
setup permits rapid repetition of the measurements
and yields results with low statistical error. Unlike the
than the slab thickness t to minimize friction, and
expression (1) for the pull-off force was corrected
accordingly. With the fringe effect neglected, the
electric field may be assumed to be confined between
the plates. Then the electrostatic field energy of the
system is

1
U= εr ε0 | E |2 d (2)
2
where integration is performed over the whole volume
between the capacitor plates. If the dielectric extends
into the capacitor gap to a distance x, the integration in
(2) is broken into three parts: the volume btx occupied
by the field in the dielectric region; the volume
b(d − t)x in the space between the plates and the di-
electric, and the volume (l 2 − xb)d in the rest of the ca-
pacitor. With these data the electrostatic energy U stored
by the capacitor as a function of x can be written as
 
εr − 1 l2 ε0 b
U= x+ V 2 . (3)
(d/t − 1)εr + 1 b 2d
At fixed potential difference, the principle of virtual
work F = (∂U/∂ x)V yields the following expres-
sion for the force acting on the dielectric:

January 2002 P H YSI C S E D U C AT I O N 71

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ε0 (εr − 1) b V Fmeas Fcalc

F= V 2 (4)
(d/t − 1)εr + 1 2d (V) (mN) (mN)

which at d = t reduces to (1). 1750 0.59±0.05 0.6

2000 0.78±0.07 0.8
Results
2250 1.10±0.09 1.0
Ordinary window glass with edge b = 10 cm,
t = 3mm, was used in our experiments conducted at 2500 1.37±0.12 1.3
20 ◦ C with a humidity of 75%. At d ≈ 4 mm the sam- 2750 1.76±0.15 1.5
ple was inserted into the gap to a depth of 3–5 cm. The
relative permittivity of the window glass was assumed Table 1. Dependence of the force acting on the
to be εr = 7. The comparison of the measured data with glass plate inserted in the gap of a parallel-plate
the values calculated from (4) is given in table 1. The capacitor on applied voltage.
error in the measured data is less than 10%, and is mainly
associated with the error in the determination of d and Acknowledgment
the uncertainties in εr , which varies between about 5 The authors would like to thank the Israel Ministry of
and 7.5 for glasses. A plot of the balance readings ver- Immigration and Absorption for its partial financial
sus the applied potential is shown in figure 2 (circles). support.
Fitting of the values from several experiments to a func-
tion of the type F ∝ V n yielded values of n between References
1.97 and 2.15, in good agreement with equation (4). [1] Nayfeh M H and Brussel M K 1985 Electricity and
The demonstration of the forces acting on a dielec- Magnetism (New York: Wiley) Example 6.13
tric with an electronic balance is a useful instructional [2] Margulies S 1984 Am. J. Phys. 52 515–8
technique in an introductory physics course. It pro- [3] Utreras-Diaz C A 1988 Am. J. Phys. 56 700–1
vides the students with a situation involving electro- [4] Benenson R E 1991 Am. J. Phys. 59 763–4
static interactions as well as with experience in force [5] Cortel A 1999 Phys. Teacher 37 447–8
measurements and calculations. The students have the
opportunity to compare, analyse and interpret results R Digilov and M Reiner
obtained by two methods. Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

M Y W AY
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Professor Haywood has very kindly made the full set
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obtained from the electronic version of this journal.
You have to advise a parent whether to allow
their new-born baby (which is at risk of serious
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Use the information provided in the Ethical,
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72 P H YSI C S E D U C AT I O N January 2002