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A capacitor consists of two conductors.

When the capacitor is charged, the conductors carry

charges of equal magnitude and opposite sign.
The conductors are called plates.

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The farad is a very large unit of capacitance.

In practice, typical devices have capacitances ranging from:

microfarads (10-6 F) to picofarads (10-12 F)

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A circuit consisting of a capacitor, a
battery, and a switch.

1) When the switch is closed, the

battery establishes an electric
field in the wire that causes
electrons to move from the left
plate into the wire and into the right
plate from the wire.
2) As a result, a separation of
charge exists on the plates, which
represents an increase in electric
potential energy of the system of
the circuit.
3) This energy in the system has been
transformed from chemical energy
in the battery.

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Suppose b =2a for the cylindrical capacitor.

We would like to increase the capacitance, and we can do

so by choosing to increase:
1) lenght by 10%
or
2) increasing a by 10%.

Which choice is more effective at increasing the capacitance?

Case 1) Increasing lenght:

C is proportional to l, so increasing l by 10% results

in a 10% increase in C

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Case 2) Increasing a:

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and

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 http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/capchg.html#c1

When a battery is connected to

a series resistor and capacitor,
the initial current is high as the
battery transports charge from
one plate of the capacitor to the
other. The charging current
asymptotically approaches zero
as the capacitor becomes
charged up to the battery
voltage. Charging the capacitor
stores energy in the electric
field between the capacitor
plates. The rate of charging is
typically described in terms of a
time constant RC.

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