CONTENTS

1. Definition of Capacitance
2. Calculating Capacitance
3. Combinations of Capacitors
4. Energy Stored in a Charged Capacitor
5. Capacitors with Dielectrics
6. Electric Dipole in an Electric Field
7. An Atomic Description of Dielectrics
Circuit elements

Three simple circuit elements

+ Capacitors: to store electric charge
+ Resistors: to control the current in the
various parts of the circuit
+ Inductors: the energy stored in the magnetic field

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1. DEFINITION OF CAPACITANCE
 1. DEFINITION OF CAPACITANCE

Capacitor

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 1. DEFINITION OF CAPACITANCE

Capacitor
Capacitance
𝑸
𝑪≡
∆𝑽

𝟏𝐂
Unit: 𝟏𝐅 =
𝐕
Physical capacitor: mF, mmF, pF

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 1. DEFINITION OF CAPACITANCE

Battery connection
A parallel-plate capacitor is connected to the
terminals of a battery
- Capacitor: Initial uncharged
- Battery: establish an electric field in the
connecting wires when connections are made
- Capacitor: Electrons transfer between the
plates and the wires so that the plates
become charged.
1. DEFINITION OF CAPACITANCE
2. CALCULATING CAPACITANCE
 2. CALCULATING CAPACITANCE

Calculation
Capacitance

Electric field Potential difference

Then
2. CALCULATING CAPACITANCE
2. CALCULATING CAPACITANCE
2. CALCULATING CAPACITANCE
 3. COMBINATIONS OF CAPACITORS

Parallel combination
Series combination
Symbols
 3. COMBINATIONS OF CAPACITORS

Parallel combination
Potential difference of each capacitors are equal

Charges of capacitors

Charges of capacitors

Capatance
 3. COMBINATIONS OF CAPACITORS

Series combination

𝑸𝟏 𝑸𝟐 𝑸 𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
∆𝑽𝒕𝒐𝒕 = ∆𝑽𝟏 + ∆𝑽𝟐 = + = = + 𝑸𝟏 = 𝑸𝟐 = 𝑸
𝑪𝟏 𝑪𝟐 𝑪𝒆𝒒 𝑪𝒆𝒒 𝑪𝟏 𝑪𝟐

Equivalent capacitance 𝟏 𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
= + + +⋯
𝑪𝒆𝒒 𝑪𝟏 𝑪𝟐 𝑪𝟑
3. COMBINATIONS OF CAPACITORS
3. COMBINATIONS OF CAPACITORS
4. ENERGY STORED IN A CHARGED CAPACITOR
4. ENERGY STORED IN A CHARGED CAPACITOR
 4. ENERGY STORED IN A CHARGED CAPACITOR

Stored Energy
The work to move charge dq across the capacitor plates

𝐐
𝐪 𝟏 𝐐 𝐐𝟐
𝐖 = න 𝐝𝐪 = න 𝐪𝐝𝐪 =
𝟎 𝐂 𝐂 𝟎 𝟐𝐂

The work done in charging the capacitor appears as electric Work

potential energy UE stored in the capacitor.

𝑄2 1 1
𝑈𝐸 = = 𝑄∆𝑉 = 𝐶(∆𝑉)2
2𝐶 2 2
𝟏 𝛜𝟎 𝐀 𝟏
𝐔𝐄 = (𝐄𝐝) = (𝛜𝟎 𝐀𝐝)𝐄 𝟐
𝟐
𝟐 𝐝 𝟐
𝟏 𝑞
Energy density 𝒖𝑬 = 𝝐𝟎 𝑬𝟐 𝑑𝑊 = ∆𝑉𝑑𝑞 = 𝑑𝑞
𝟐 𝐶
4. ENERGY STORED IN A CHARGED CAPACITOR
4. ENERGY STORED IN A CHARGED CAPACITOR
5. CAPACITORS WITH DIELECTRICS
 5. CAPACITORS WITH DIELECTRICS

Potential difference with dielectric

Without dielectric Capatance
𝝐𝟎 𝑨 𝝐𝟎 𝑨
𝑪= 𝑪=𝜿
𝒅 𝒅
𝚫𝑽𝟎 Potential difference
𝚫𝑽𝟎
∆𝑽 =
𝜿

Then 𝑸𝟎 𝑸𝟎 𝑸𝟎
𝑪= = =𝜿
∆𝑽 𝚫𝑽𝟎 𝚫𝑽𝟎
𝜿

𝑪 = 𝜿𝑪𝟎
5. CAPACITORS WITH DIELECTRICS
5. CAPACITORS WITH DIELECTRICS
6. ELECTRIC DIPOLE IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD
 6. ELECTRIC DIPOLE IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Electric dipole
Electric dipole moment

𝒑 = 𝒒𝒅

𝒑 ≡ 𝟐𝒂𝒒
Direction: -q to +q
Distance: 2a
 6. ELECTRIC DIPOLE IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Electric dipole in uniform electric field

Electric force on each charge

𝑭 = 𝒒𝑬
Electric dipole moment
𝒑 ≡ 𝟐𝒂𝒒

Net torque on O 𝝉 ≡ 𝟐(𝒂 × 𝑭)

𝜏 ≡ 𝟐𝑭𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜽 = 2𝑎𝑞𝐸𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 = 𝑝𝐸𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
𝝉=𝒑×𝑬
 6. ELECTRIC DIPOLE IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Electric dipole in uniform electric field

The work done

𝒅𝑾 = 𝑭𝒅𝒔 = 𝑭𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜽. 𝒓𝒅𝜽 = 𝝉𝒅𝜽

𝝉 = 𝒑𝑬𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜽
𝜏 and the work results in an increase in the electric
potential energy. The change in potential energy of
the system is
𝜃𝑓 𝜃𝑓
𝜃𝑓
𝑼𝒇 − 𝑼𝒊 = න 𝜏𝑑𝜃 = 𝑝𝐸 න 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝑑𝜃 = 𝑝𝐸 −𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
𝜃𝑖 𝜃𝑖 𝜃𝑖
= 𝒑𝑬(𝒄𝒐𝒔𝜽𝒊 − 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝜽𝒇 )
Choose 𝑈𝑖 = 0 𝑎𝑡𝜽𝒊 = 𝟗𝟎°
𝑼𝑬 = −𝒑𝑬
𝑈𝑓 = 𝑈𝐸 = −𝑝𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
 6. ELECTRIC DIPOLE IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

The center of the positive charge

distribution is at the point .

The water molecule, H2O, has a permanent polarization (a) A linear symmetric molecule has no permanent polarizat
resulting from its nonlinear geometry (b) An external
electric field induces a polarization in the molecule
 6. ELECTRIC DIPOLE IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Example 6:
The water (H2O) molecule has an electric dipole moment of 6.3 × 10−30 C.m. A
sample contains 1021 water molecules, with the dipole moments all oriented in
the direction of an electric field of magnitude 2.5 × 105 N/C . How much work
is required to rotate the dipoles from this orientation (α = 0) to one in which all
the moments are perpendicular to the field (α = 90º)?
7. AN ATOMIC DESCRIPTION OF DIELECTRICS
 7. AN ATOMIC DESCRIPTION OF DIELECTRICS
Polar molecules
Random orientation Aligning with 𝑬𝟎 Establishing 𝑬𝒊𝒏𝒅

The field in the presence of a dielectric

𝑬𝟎 𝝈 𝝈𝒊𝒏𝒅 The induced charge density
𝑬= = 𝑬𝒊𝒏𝒅 =
𝜿 𝜿𝝐𝟎 𝝐𝟎
𝜿−𝟏
The net electric field in the dielectric 𝝈𝒊𝒏𝒅 = 𝝈
𝜿
𝝈 𝝈 𝝈𝒊𝒏𝒅
𝑬 = 𝑬𝟎 − 𝑬𝒊𝒏𝒅 ⇒ = −
𝜿𝝐𝟎 𝝐𝟎 𝝐𝟎
7. AN ATOMIC DESCRIPTION OF DIELECTRICS